Code: Desperate
by Pearl Hikari
Summary: Lan and MegaMan suddenly find themselves in a new, unknown network. However, they soon become the prime target of a certain super-virus in that unknown network. Note: Check my profile for any story updates.
1. Chapter 1

Lan Hikari groggily opened his eyes and slowly got to his feet. From a slight observation of his surroundings, Lan immediately understood he was in desert territory; partly because of the huge sand dunes and partly because of the sandy plateaus. What interested him, however, was the fact that large cables were wrapped around these dunes, giving the impression of being attached to the ground and rising from there. That sight alone seemed to indicate that Lan was in a virtual world. But. . .that was impossible, wasn't it?

Those thoughts lazily danced around Lan's fuzzy brain as he tried to regain his Barings. The next thought that entered his head was a simple question; _where am I? _ A question commonly used in so many storylines that made all the difference. In most clichéd plots, that question usually a) has no answer to it or b) has a farfetched reply from another individual. However, in this instance, a choice "c" occurs as Lan suddenly hears a voice in his own head answer _I'm not sure._

Any other person would have been startled or assumed himself mad when hearing a voice echo in his own mind; but Lan Hikari knew that voice and had to grow accustomed to hearing it in his head. It was the voice of MegaMan, his netnavi and best friend. Now, if you're going to ask if it's normal for operators to hear the voices of their netnavis in their head, the honest answer is no. That is, until the possibility of cross-fusion is added into the equation. Cross-fusion, described without all the scientific explanations, basically allows an operator and his netnavi to combine into one entity, thus sharing the same mind and consciousness. It sounded cool, but experiencing it was, as Lan often put it, _even cooler._

_MegaMan,_ Lan thought, knowing his netnavi would hear it. _When did we cross-fuse? I don't know, Lan, _MegaMan sent back. _I don't remember you using the Synchro Chip. _"I didn't," Lan said aloud. He knew it was unnecessary to speak as MegaMan could hear his thoughts as Lan broadcasted them through his brain, but it felt more like a conversation if some verbal speech was added in. "Do you have any idea where we are?," Lan asked. _Well. . .maybe some foreign network from the looks of things. Maybe we should go look around a bit, _replied MegaMan. "Good idea," said Lan, taking a few cautious steps into the new territory before changing his pace into a dash. It wasn't long before Lan realized he was not alone in this unknown network. Several kind visitors arrived to greet him before pelting him with lasers. The fact that they had the appearance of overgrown cockroaches with strange eye-symbols didn't increase Lan's affection for them either.

Lan let out a battle-cry as his right hand converted into the MegaBuster. Firing several shots from the convenient arm-cannon, he took down the viruses with ease, killing each with one hit. The difficulty level of the battle began to rise as reinforcements appeared; the new combatants that arrived were wasp-like viruses, who, as Lan immediately realized, had the same insignia as the cockroaches. That strange eye-symbol was displayed on their heads. However, Lan didn't have time to dwell on that as the wasps glided towards him with great speed, spewing green poison from their stingers. Lan retaliated with shots from his MegaBuster, which were easily dodged by his new airborne opponents. The only effect the attack had was enraging the wasp viruses, who responded with firing lasers. If a desperate attempt to evade the attack, Lan flung himself into the air with a graceful leap. "Long Sword!," he shouted, as his arm-cannon reassembled himself into that weapon.

In the manner of a ballerina, Lan, while in mid-jump, began to spin, gaining speed with each swerve. He gained the appearance of a spinning top as his movements soon became a blur. Using this speed along with the reach of his sword, Lan slashed all the wasp viruses in reach of him, which was every single one as they foolishly tried to surround him. _"_I'd like to see ProtoMan top _that!_," Lan gloated as he reached the ground when the wasps disintegrated into raw data. _Didn't you take that technique from him?_, said MegaMan's voice in his head."Well. . .um . . .," Lan said, trying to find a suitable reply. Deciding that changing the subject was his best chance, Lan said, "I'm surprised the BattleChip worked. I mean, we're in a foreign network, so I thought maybe it wouldn't." _Good point,_ responded MegaMan. _Well, since we have out PET, _(I mean we're cross-fused, so we obviously still have it. . .)_ I guess that gives us access to BattleChips. _ "That's good to know," noted Lan as he began to leave the former battlefield. He resumed his dash around the foreign network before the peace was interrupted once again by the appearance of a black haze. Murky smoke swirled and spiraled in a dark tornado before Lan's very eyes. Expecting the worst, Lan went into a defensive stance. How surprised he was that when the smoke cleared, a human figure was standing in front of him.

However, Lan was far from reassured when he looked at the human. His armor was a dark, soulless black and sported the same eye-symbol that the other viruses had. That emblem was either a popular fad or symbolized that the human was in the same league as those other viruses. The latter possibility had a greater probability of being true, which meant that the human was his enemy. Lan's suspicions were proven correct as the human summoned a black zweihander from thin air before charging at Lan like a rhino. "Hero's Sword!," Lan shouted as his arm converted itself into that weapon. He barely had enough time to parry the zweihander blade as the black-clad human was agile despite the immense weight of his sword. Seeing the weapon up close, Lan saw that it, too, displayed the eye-symbol. However, Lan had no time to pay attention to the details of the weapon his opponent was using in order to kill him. The time for weapon-gawking was after the opposing side was down for the count.

The black warrior violently thrust his zweihander at Lan multiple times; however, each strike landed without success. Lan always made a swift dodge at the last moment, a time -span that neither combatant could spare. His last-minute evasions seemed to enrage the black warrior, whose every thrust was done with more force and more power than the one proceeding it. Lan had no time to retaliate with an attack of his own as he was too busy dodging strikes from his adversary. However, nothing lasts forever and this fight was one of those things.

"Go!," cried the black warrior, whose raspy voice sounded like a fusion of different voices. "Strike for XANA!" His outcry at first seemed like a gesture of a madman, pointless and futile; but in the next second, his shout was answered. A barrage of lasers rained down on Lan, who soon became overwhelmed by the immense damage he was suddenly receiving and succumbed to his only option; commencing his journey to the floor. He fell on his back, rather than dishonorably hiding his face from his attacker. Or, in this case, _attackers,_ when including the newly-arrived airborne viruses. These viruses were not wasp-shaped like the other ones Lan encountered; instead, they had the appearance of flying mantas. However, they, too, sported the eye-like symbol Lan had seen so frequently, and the sight of it sent his warrior-instincts into terror. Multiple enemies on the same side. Not good. _Not good at all._

_Thank you all for reading! Chapter 2 is on the way!_


	2. Chapter 2

**Note: If you are a returning reader, please re-read Chapter 1 before advancing! I added more content to it because I thought it was too short! It's no biggie though. Just read the last few paragraphs.**

Lan attempted to stand up, but the black warrior placed his foot on the boy's chest, thus rendering such a feat impossible. Lan felt himself being pinned down like a helpless fly in a spider web. His heartless adversary smiled in triumph, thinking the battle to be won. He lifted his zweihander, preparing for the finishing blow that would seal his victory; except he never got to experience the winning thrust when he was suddenly tackled by a boy in a cat costume. As random and ludicrous as that sounds, it just happened! The black warrior had already lifted his sword for the last strike when he was suddenly thrown away from his would-be victim with the technique football players commonly resort to—a tackle. The funniest part of the whole scene was that the boy who threw the surprise tackle was wearing a cat costume, a purple one, at that! And the costume itself included the whole cat look—the ears, tail, claws; all in purple, of course.

The ridiculous appearance of his savior caused Lan to fall into a state of bafflement; who'd take someone seriously wearing _that_ get-up? However, the airborne viruses did not seem at all fazed by cat boy's presence. They reacted as if accustomed to it and fired their lasers without the slightest hesitation. However, cat boy, unlike Lan, had allies; Lan realized this as one of them dashed into the battle and deflected the lasers with his katana. This newly-arrived person, also male, had a more reasonable attire than the cat boy; his clothes told Lan he was a samurai. "Triplicate!," yelled the samurai as he leaped at the manta-like viruses. As he jumped, two samurai clones appeared beside him, each resembling the original to the minute detail. With katana at hand, the three samurais all leaped onto their target, which in this case, were the three airborne enemies, and climbed onto their backs. With one swift, fluid motion, each samurai plunged their sword into the middle of the eye-like symbol on each enemies' back—the action being done by all three warriors at the same exact moment. The result was, as predictability follows, the disintegration of all three viruses. However, the samurais, as if knowing full well the after-effects of their strike, leaped off their adversaries'' backs as the creatures were about to explode. "Fusion!," the samurai shouted as his two clones fused with his body.

However, the samurai's ally, cat boy, was not having any luck with his own opponent. The samurai had just finished his battle in time to see the black warrior delivering the final strike to his friend, which resulted in the cat boy's frame fading into virtual chunks of data. Lan, unable to stand, watched the cat boy's defeat with horror; that boy tried to save him and received deletion for it? Lan wanted to get up, to fling himself into the battle again and avenge his savior's deletion, but he didn't have the strength to stand. However, all was not lost as the samurai seemed to have similar thoughts as Lan and rushed to take his fallen friend's place in the battlefield.

The battle that took place soon afterwards was very short as the black warrior seemed exhausted after his fights with cat boy and Lan. He went down after a couple of hits, fading with the similar black smoke he used to arrive. Finally, upon seeing that the peace would not be interrupted, the samurai sheathed his katana and offered a hand to Lan, who quickly accepted the offer. When Lan stood up, the samurai turned his head, and speaking to the air, said, "Jeremy, I've got him." "Good," answered the air, as the voice emerged from an unknown source. "Take him to the nearest tower so I can analyze him." The samurai groaned, as if irritated by the command, and objected, "how many proofs to you need to tell you he's _not_ with XANA? You've already sent Aelita and Yumi to Sector Five and they have found no records about him! Jeremy, you're just being paranoid!"

"You never know," answered Jeremy matter-of-factly, whose annoying tone sounded like he was waggling a finger at the screen. The samurai had the expression that told Lan he was ready to give himself a face-palm. "Um. . .is that your operator?," asked Lan innocently. "You could say that," the samurai huffed. "By the way, my name's Ulrich. What's yours?" "Lan," replied the young Hikari. "What did he mean, get into the nearest tower?" Ulrich's face molded into the same exasperated, face-palm expression and said, in a very unenthusiastic manner, "you'll see."

Lan found himself standing on a platform that displayed that eye-symbol that kept appearing; the frequent occurrence of seeing it made him note that the emblem meant something. He felt a sensation of unease flow through his spine as he was asked to stand on the center of the white insignia to be analyzed by some unknown person. That uncertainty along with dozens of other unknowns made Lan feel nervous, only to be reassured by the sound of MegaMan's voice in his head; for now, MegaMan was the only soul Lan felt comfortable trusting. However, because of the immense damage their cross-fusion form had taken, MegaMan's voice was faint and weak; this made Lan realize that their cross-fusion was only held together by a feeble thread that was already breaking. Their weakened state only added to Lan's unease. However, he wasn't given a choice in the matter. It was either obedience or defiance and Lan felt the latter option would worsen the situation. Gingerly and somewhat reluctantly, he stood on the center of the eye-symbol.

Jeremy had expected an argument from Lan, at least a show of reluctance. He received a nice surprise when Lan obeyed him in silence. Hundreds of files emerged all over the screen, each folder containing data on one subject; the mysterious visitor to Lyoko. They spawned faster than Cheep-Cheep-fish in a Mario game. Hundreds of folders appeared with such abundance and such speed that Jeremy gained the impression that Lan wasn't trying to hide anything. Though of course, this could be a cunning trick of XANA's to catch him off guard. . .

At this, Jeremy let out a heavy sigh; who was he kidding? Though he was reluctant to admit it, Ulrich was right; Jeremy was just being paranoid. However, in his defense, Jeremy had every reason to be overly protective. Ever since William had fallen under XANA's control, Jeremy knew that XANA would resort to more evil and more cunning plots. But Lan, on the other hand, had no relation to the super-virus. Every file pointed out he was human, and under control of his own mind. Yet even those innocent folders had something suspicious in them; the coding, the data structure—something _just _ didn't feel right. But perhaps this suspicion just emerged from more paranoia.

"Satisfied, Jeremy?," demanded Ulrich, folding his arms. "Yes," Jeremy answered. "He's human and not working for XANA." "Wait. . .who's XANA?," asked Lan. Ulrich sighed. "I rest my case." "Never mind that. Lan, I'll use Code: Earth to bring you in. Don't worry, it won't hurt." That last part of the sentence left Lan far from being reassured. Usually, when a computer genius guarantees a pain-free experience, it ends up going in the opposite direction. And so it was. When Jeremy punched in the code, Lan felt as if his structure was breaking apart. It was like being torn in half in slow motion, minus the blood and gore animations. He would have screamed had he possessed the strength, but that was the disadvantage of being devirtualizied. Because your body is being disassembled in the virtual realm and reconstituted in the human world, you can't do anything as the process is happening. In short: can you scream? Nope.


	3. Chapter 3

The Lyoko Warriors were all assembled in what they called the scanner room. They termed the area with that name for one simple reason; the scanners were in there. The scanners basically served as Lyoko Warriors' ticket to Lyoko as the group could not get to and from the virtual realm by any other means. This made the scanner room a vital part in the war with XANA.

It was in this very room where they awaited the arrival of Lan Hikari. They didn't have to wait very long as one of the scanners soon opened its doors, releasing a vat of smoke. When the smoke cleared, the scanner revealed the figure of an unconscious Lan Hikari. "So, that's Lan?," Aelita asked. "Yes," confirmed Jeremy. "And you thought he was in league with XANA," teased Odd. As Jeremy opened his mouth to respond, he abruptly thrown into silence by the sound of another scanner opening its doors. A second vat of smoke emerged, confirming that the sound was not a fragment of one's imagination. When the steam faded away, it revealed the body of another person, a male at that. While the Lyoko Warriors stared awestruck at the unknown guest in the scanner, Lan took the opportunity to regain consciousness and opened his eyes. "W-what happened?," he moaned as he slowly got to his feet. His groggy voice caught the attention of the group. Jeremy, the first to respond, said, "Lan, I don't think you know our friend here, do you?" Lan blinked his eyes in confusion, not knowing what Jeremy was referring to. However, when he saw the motionless body in the scanner across from him, his blood froze and his face paled. He clenched his chest, as if worried his heart might stop. He had the appearance of someone gazing upon a long-lost relative, in shock and unable to respond. The boy in the scanner had a strong resemblance to Lan. His hair was dark brown, and his bangs flowed past his face, which was unlike Lan's hair which was tied back by a bandana. He also wore a sky-blue T-shirt and navy-colored genes, which were so long they hid his black sneakers. However, what caught Lan's attention was the boy's medallion. The necklace sported the Hikari Family insignia, which was also displayed on Lan's bandana.

Seeing this symbol caused Lan to stare at the boy in silence, his voice crammed down his throat and unable to emerge. He realized who the boy was, and knowing that identity was what caused his stunned reaction. Finally recovering the initial shock, Lan actually spoke, his voice trembling with both awe and emotion. "I-I don't b-b-believe it. . .he's f-finally here. . .after a-all that. . ." "Who?," asked Aelita. "What are you talking about?"

Lan, who would normally have had the manners to reply, did not. Rather, he approached the boy in the scanner and kneeled right next to him. Then, he placed his hand over the boy's, as if wanting to make sure he was no hologram or illusion. His suspicions were proven false as Lan felt the texture of real skin when his hand made contact with the boy's fingers. "Hub," Lan said quietly. "Hub, is that you?" Upon hearing the name, the boy's eyes slowly opened, revealing emerald-colored irises. He released a short moan as his eyes adjusted to the light and flinched when his sight came back into focus. The reason behind the cringe was the fact that the boy became aware of Lan's presence. "Lan," he said, his wheezy tone barely audible. "What's going on? H-how am I here?" He felt Lan's hand clasping his fingers and realized that this was no dream. The sensation of touch flowed down his nerve cells, telling his brain that everything was real. He was in the human world. . .Lan's world! That realization compelled him to stand and exit the scanner, so that he could experience the world he had gazed at so many times while in the confines of a PET. Once he actually did the thoughts of his mind, Hub became aware of the fact that he and Lan were not alone in the scanner room, but in the presence of the Lyoko warriors. And mighty confused warriors at that. It was time for some garbled explanations.

The introductions were extremely awkward as Lan learned that the warriors he encountered on Lyoko were actually humans from the real world virtualized onto the digital realm. This also lead him to breathe a sigh of relief as it turned out that the cat boy he saw earlier was, in fact, not deleted by the black warrior but merely sent back to the human world. The cat boy, whose name turned out to be Odd Della- Robia, was said to be a real joker, at least according to Ulrich. However, the explanation Lan was required to give was far from fun, especially since he had to explain the presence of Hub/MegaMan.

Of course, Lan couldn't tell them that MegaMan was his dead brother reborn as a netnavi. That confession would result in:

A) Mockery

B) Disbelief

C) Suspicion of Madness

D) Overdramatic Reactions

E) A whole novel of explanations that would eventually lead to Lan relating the entire life story of the Hikari family.

None of those five options would result in anything good, so Lan considered his other choices. He didn't want to lie, but he couldn't tell the full truth either. MegaMan, also weighing those very same options as Jeremy was being very demanding in his interrogation, came up with a compromise to their dilemma. "Lan and I are twins," MegaMan said. "Since our genes are similar, that would explain why we can merge." Lan's eyes brightened when he heard MegaMan's answer. _A half-lie! Of course! Great going, MegaMan!_, Lan thought to himself. That temporary good mood was spoiled by Jeremy when he asked his next question. "Perhaps," said Jeremy. "But why were you on Lyoko in the first place?" Lan and MegaMan exchanged anxious glances. How were they going to answer this one? How could another half-lie save them from such a straight-forward question? Yet MegaMan, the apparent master of improvisation, had an answer. "We're not completely sure," said MegaMan. "We didn't even know what that network was called until now." Jeremy's expression changed upon hearing his answer. Before, his face remained in a neutral stance; but now, a thick scowl stretched across his features, giving the impression he didn't approve of that answer. "Jeremy, for the hundredth time, they're _not _ working with XANA," moaned Ulrich, thinking the computer genius was having another attack of paranoia. "I never said that they were!," protested Jeremy. "Hey, who is this XANA?," cut in Lan, who had heard that name several times before on Lyoko. Before Jeremy could reply, Odd interrupted him, providing an explanation of his own. "Well, without Einstein's entire novel, XANA is an evil virus who wants to take over the world and attacks Earth by activating towers on Lyoko. We stop him by shutting down those towers, performing a return to the past to repair the damages, and thus saving the world. It's a really simple job once you get used to it." The Lyoko warriors were expecting an astonished reaction from MegaMan and Lan, but they took the information in quite calmly, as if they had experienced something similar in the past. Indeed, this evil virus called XANA strongly reminded the Hikari twins of WWW, a former crime organization who had the same goal of world domination. This explanation from Odd (who had quoted some lines from Jeremy's video diary) led Lan to his next question. "So that eye-thing I saw. . .does it have something to do with XANA?" "It has everything to do with XANA," replied Jeremy. "That's his symbol." MegaMan's eyes widened when he heard that response from Jeremy.

He remembered that he saw the eye-like insignia appear on his father's computers before the most recent experiment went hay-wire. Dr. Yuuchiro Hikari had tried to materialize MegaMan into the real world, for it had been his dream for over a decade. The arrangements were set and the systems were prepared for the undertaking. However, when the time came, the computers went out of control, each displaying the same emblem—the mark of XANA. MegaMan, who had been in his PET and thus unable to see or do anything, recalled hearing the lab explode in shrieks while one scream in particular caught his ears; the cry of Lan Hikari as he was whisked into the virtual realm. MegaMan didn't know why or how, but XANA had kidnapped them from their home and sent them into his own turf; the realm of Lyoko.

When MegaMan had laid eyes on that symbol, he had no time to dwell on its significance. But now, he was not in the presence of an opponent trying to bash a sword into his skull and could think more freely. "Lan, that symbol appeared on dad's computers, remember?," he said to his twin. Lan looked baffled at first, but then comprehension dawned upon his features. He recalled the same flashback MegaMan had summoned and nodded in agreement. "What are you talking about?," demanded Jeremy. "That symbol appeared on our computers before they went out of our control," replied MegaMan. "_What?!"_ All eyes were on the Hikari twins now, desperate to hear more. "My father was conducting a sort of experiment, and then his computers went crazy. Every screen kept showing the same thing: that eye-symbol. That's the last thing I remember before we turned up on Lyoko." MegaMan concluded his narrative a bitter look in his eyes, as if the true memory he was trying to explain happened more violently then he just related. Jeremy was stabbed by guilt. He felt bad for suspecting the twins of working for XANA when really the opposite was true; XANA had attacked them and whisked them away from their family. He _had_ to make up for it. "So you're basically stranded here?," he asked the twins. "Pretty much," they answered in union. "That shouldn't be hard to fix."


	4. Chapter 4

**Before I continue with my story, I want to thank everybody who has been reading it, and I just want to say that ALL comments are welcome. I want to know what you think of my story, and how I can improve. **

**I also would like to give a special thanks to PEJP Bengtzon V2 for taking the time out of his/her day to comment on my story! **

**So, without futher ado. . .I introduce Chapter 4!**

It was hard to believe, but in one all-nighter, Jeremy had been able to forge documents for Lan and MegaMan in order to get them enrolled in the school he and the Lyoko warriors attended—Kadic Academy. They were signed in as "Lan and Hub Hikari, the twins from Miami, Florida." Document-forging was no easy task, but since Jeremy had already done so for Aelita, it wasn't so hard for him.

However, the Hikari twins began to have second thoughts about attending Kadic when they had their first class—Physical Education, otherwise known as "P.E." One look at the teacher and the Hikari brothers could tell they would need all their experience in virus-busting to survive the ordeal. Jim Morales, whose bulky frame gave him the appearance of one who stuffed his entire house into his sweater, shot a deathly glare at the Hikari twins when he saw them with the Lyoko Warriors. "HUB HIKARI!," he barked, reading the name off the list. "FRONT AND CENTER! ON THE DOUBLE!" "Yes, sir!," said MegaMan quickly, approaching the gym teacher and standing in front of him. "Laps for you, Hikari! Let's see how you do against. . .Hikari!" Morales gestured to Lan to approach him and pointed to the race track where the twins would do the assigned task. "ON MY WHISTE! YOU START! Got it?!," bellowed Morales. The brothers exchanged glances. "GOT IT?!," shouted the gym teacher. "Got it!," they shouted in union. "THEN GO!" The brothers did as assigned, approaching the race track and preparing to run. Morales held his whistle in his bulky hands. "ON YOUR MARK! GET SET! ANNNDDD—" where he was supposed to announce _go,_ Morales blew into his whistle, causing a shrill noise to erupt as well as stating the race was on.

Lan and MegaMan both dashed away from the starting line, off to a brilliant beginning. MegaMan had ran many times in the cyber-world, but the feeling of it could not be compared with the sensation of actually feeling your legs drive against real soil, of seeing the sun shine overhead, and of having your brother as a competitor. Being human felt wonderful, and it had been MegaMan's dream ever since he became aware of his origins. And why not take the advantage of an opportunity to act as a human? The chance was literally staring at him in the face, so shouldn't he enjoy it? MegaMan grinned at that notion and picked up speed, pumping his arms and legs like a star athlete. Lan, too, was compelled to increase his pace, urging his body to go faster. As MegaMan dashed, he felt his necklace, which sported the Hikari symbol, dangling to and fro from his neck, also caught up in the heat of the race. The two competitors were neck-and-neck, in a tie for first place.

Tears of sweat flowed down MegaMan's back and his normally peach-colored face was a bright red; the same signs of exhaustion were also evident in his competitor. However, neither Hikari was willing to back down, though they were both gasping for breath. The once welcoming sun now beat down upon the duo. MegaMan felt the heated rays of the sun tackle him and had the craving for a drink. His heart beat increased by ten-fold, pumping blood at an abnormal pace. A burning sensation attacked his chest, as if his heart was ablaze with fire. MegaMan's heart swelled in the manner of a balloon, threatening to burst out of his ribcage. His brain shouted that it had reached its limits and it broadcasted that message to his limbs. The former netnavi felt as if his organs had turned into hunks of iron, for they suddenly became so heavy.

His own body was dragging him down as the heat sapped the energy out of him. This was a new sensation, one he had never felt before. A feeling that only humans had—fatigue, an overwhelming sensation that could only be combated with a tranquil rest. It could not be delayed or ignored. Fatigue was a feeling that grew stronger over time and cooperated well with the heat. MegaMan tried to fight it, but eventually found himself giving in. His consciousness faded as his exhausted body hit the floor, wallowing in the dirt of the race track.

MegaMan's eyes slowly opened as he regained consciousness. His senses gradually returned to him as he made an effort to sit up and view his surroundings. It only took a short observation to reveal that he was not lying on the dirty running track, but rather on a comfortable bed in the infirmary. He would have been soothed by the soft texture of a mattress against his back and a warm quilt covering his body, but the throbbing sensation his chest prevented him from doing so. _So this is what pain feels like in the human world, _MegaMan thought to himself. _I never thought I'd get a first-person experience of it. _On this subject, the former netnavi noted the feeling was not pleasant and he would probably dislike it; this was in sharp contrast to the other human traits he enjoyed discovering.

And on the topic of human traits, MegaMan had to utilize yet another one, though he had been using this sense even as a netnavi. The skill MegaMan needed was the sense of hearing—in order to hear the sound of the door opening and the pattering of sneakers. Turning his head around, MegaMan saw the figure of his brother Lan entering the room, a concerned look etched on his face. However, Lan's expression brightened when he saw his twin was awake. "Meg—Hub, are you alright?," asked Lan. "Yeah, I'm ok," came the reply. He took a closer look at Lan and saw that his brother was carrying a medium-sized green box in his hands. "What's in the box?," the former netnavi questioned. "Oh, right!," said Lan, realizing he was still holding the articule in his hands. "I thought you might be hungry after what happened during gym, so I got you something to eat." The young Hikari presented the box to his former netnavi, who smiled at the gesture and took the object. Food. So typical of Lan Hikari. MegaMan flung the cover off the box and peered at its contents. Inside was a duo of cheese sandwiches, a couple of red apples, and a mini-sized water bottle.  
"Thanks, Lan. But where did you get this?"  
"The cafeteria."  
"They just let you take it?"  
"No. I told the lunch lady you were in the infirmary and she gave me this to give to you. She said that she hopes you get better."  
"That was nice of her. Hey, wait. . .how'd you get out of class?"  
"We have free period now, so I decided to come and see you."  
MegaMan paused for a second in order for his brain to process that last sentence. "Wait. . .if we have free period now, how long have I been out?," he asked. "Something like an hour, I guess," said Lan. MegaMan placed a hand on his forehead, as if trying to concentrate a complicated complex of thoughts. "Why did I faint in the first place?," he said, concern evident in his voice. "I don't know," replied the younger Hikari. "The nurse says you overexerted yourself. But. . ."  
"But what, Lan?," asked the former netnavi, his attention completely on his brother.  
"I asked Jeremy, and he thinks differently." MegaMan leaned closer to his former operator, his eyes focused and unblinking. "What did he say?," he whispered, the volume of his tone now barely audible. "Jeremy asked me how long we were in the Net and I told him I didn't know. And then he said. . ." As Lan finished his sentence, he reached into his pocket and withdrew a piece of folded paper. Opening it up, he read:

**"'Obviously Hub and yourself must have spent several days roaming in the network before finding Lyoko, though the two of you may not recall that. My theory is that Hub's body has not fully adjusted to being in the human world again and thus, has to remember how to function in the real world. However, because Hub was suddenly thrust into exercising his limbs, which were not completely prepared to do such activity, as well as the sweltering heat, we can thus conclude that those two components mashed together in one equation was simply too much for his body to bear. The result was, of course, Hub falling into unconsciousness. Therefore, he should abstain from any overexerting activity until his body re-adjusts to function as a human being.'"**

After Jeremy's speech had been read, Lan shoved the paper back into his pocket. He had to write down the computer genius's lecture as Lan could barely recall it because of all the fancy words and long sentences. However, he had to hear the speech several times as Jeremy spoke faster and faster each time, for he had memorized the entire sermon by heart.

"What Jeremy thinks makes a lot of sense," commented MegaMan after Lan finished reciting the computer genius's speech. Lan gave an involuntary nod. Then, realizing what his twin just said, exclaimed, in an astonished tone, "wait. . .you actually _understood_ all that?!" MegaMan grinned and replied, "yeah, it's pretty simple—well, if you're used to people talking with big words." Lan knew what his brother was referring to. MegaMan had been built by Dr. Hikari, who often spoke using scientific terms in a conversation. "Basically, Jeremy says that since I'm not used to being in the human world, I shouldn't try doing the big things yet. He says I should get used to reality bit-by-bit."  
"Really? That's **_ALL _** he meant to say in that whole lecture?!"  
"In a nutshell."

Lan heaved a deep sigh and sat down on his brother's bed. Only then did the younger twin notice that his brother hadn't touched the food placed in front of him. But Lan didn't have to search far for a reason behind that; MegaMan was usually insistent upon keeping his manners and would not talk to Lan with his mouth full of food. However, MegaMan's stomach also seemed to detect the food and demanded the edibles by making a loud growling sound. MegaMan, who had frequently heard Lan's stomach making that same sound, knew that it was related to hunger, another human feeling he would have to adjust to.

He proposed the giving of a sandwich to Lan, who declined the offer, stating that MegaMan needed his strength. However, the former netnavi insisted in sharing and Lan eventually gave in. Thus, the Hikari twins dined together in the same dimension, engaged in happiness while seeing the other's face in the flesh rather than off a monitor. However, in their joy, they didn't notice the looming shadow of a gray specter disappearing into and out from the wall. And, had they been in the Net, the Hikari brothers would have heard the high, icy laughter of XANA as his evil plans were sent into motion.


	5. Chapter 5

Fifteen minutes later, the free period had ended and the Hikari twins were released from the infirmary and sent to class. Unfortunately, that session was science class, which was also known as nap time for Lan. The same held likewise for Lyoko's cat warrior, Odd.

"Class, we have two new students entering our classroom and I dearly hope you treat them with respect," said the science teacher, Mrs. Hertz. "Class, please welcome Lan and Hub Hikari from Miami, Florida." Her introduction was met with fascination from the class, who had their eyes on the identical twins standing on either side of their teacher. "Lan, please sit on that empty seat next to Mr. Belpois," said Hertz, gesturing to the vacant place near the prodigy of her science session. Lan obeyed without a hint of defiance, plunking himself on the correct spot. "Hub, sit next to Miss Delmas," continued Hertz, pointing to the seat near a girl whom MegaMan vaguely recognized as the principal's daughter from Odd's list of "People You Should Always Stay Away From, Especially During XANA Attacks." He had shown that list to the Hikari twins before the first class, just in case. The roster was actually quite easy to memorize as there were only three people on it; Elizabeth "Sissi" Delmas, Jim Morales, and William Dunbar. MegaMan naively thought that the only reason Sissi was supposed to be avoided was because of her status as the principal's daughter and therefore was a nice person otherwise. Because of that assumption and his impeccable manners, MegaMan started a friendly chat with Sissi Delmas after he got settled in his seat. That action nearly gave Odd and Ulrich a heart attack. "Hi, I'm Hub Hikari. Nice to meet you," said MegaMan pleasantly. "Hello," replied Sissi dryly, not even looking at the boy talking to her. She remembered seeing the new student with Jeremy and his group earlier that morning; she didn't want to associate with a member of that gang. The exception being Ulrich, of course, but that was beside the point.

MegaMan was taken slightly aback by that somewhat hostile response. "Well, I. . .um. . . hear you're the principal's daughter. Is that true?" "Yes," spat Sissi, who began doodling in the margins of her notebook, uninterested with what she believed the most recent addition to Jeremy's group. MegaMan took her unenthusiastic replies as a sign that she didn't want to talk to him. So, he decided to prepare to take notes as the teacher was still reading through the attendance sheet and had already past _Hikari _and _Delmas._ However, the former netnavi realized he had forgotten one vital thing; he had brought a notebook, but not a writing utensil! He would have to borrow from the person nearest to him, Sissi Delmas. Even if he would get a negative response, it was still worth a try. "Sissi, would you mind lending me a pencil?," asked MegaMan politely. No reply. She was still drawing in her notebook. MegaMan repeated his request in a louder tone, yet Sissi did not answer. After a third failed attempt, MegaMan resorted to a more direct action. He tapped Sissi on the shoulder, which caused her to involuntarily whip her head in his direction. This resulted in Sissi seeing MegaMan's face up close for the first time and what she gazed at caused her heart to skip a beat. He was simply beautiful. The charm that was present in those noble lines, the grace that molded his features, those regal eyes of fire. . .his whole face was just a masterpiece in her opinion. He had something his brother didn't, a sort of air of maturity that hovered around Hub Hikari. "Sissi, are you alright?," asked MegaMan slowly as she had just kept staring at him, an eerie silence preventing her voice box from serving its usual function. She gazed at his face hungrily, and that look in her eyes made MegaMan feel uneasy. "Um. . .Sissi?," said MegaMan awkwardly. Upon hearing the Hikari state her name a second time, the principal's daughter broke quickly free from her trance and responded, "oh, yes, Hub! Is there anything you need? I mean, you're new and all, so I can definitely help you and—" "Um. . .I just need a pencil, Sissi," said MegaMan, baffled by her sudden desire to talk. "Oh, oh right! Well. . .here! Take your pick!," exclaimed Sissi, flinging her entire pencil case at MegaMan. Now even more confused by her sudden generosity, MegaMan stared at the container for several awkward seconds before opening it and selecting a writing utensil. "You can keep the pencil—if you want to, of course," stated the principal's daughter in a her usual silky tone, a warning sign to any experienced Lyoko warrior. "Um. .. thanks," replied MegaMan. "That's really nice of you." "Oh, it's not a problem, Hub," said Sissi. As she studied Hub a second time, she noticed the strange-looking emblem sported on his medallion. "What's that symbol for? I've never seen it before." "Oh, this?," said MegaMan, pointing to his necklace. "This is just a symbol. . .um. . .Lan and I made up! We wear it all the time for good luck." The story wasn't the best of fables, but MegaMan had made it up on the spot, hoping that it sounded good enough to be believed. Sissi accepted the explanation and changed the subject. "By the way, are you doing anything tonight?," she asked. "No, not really," answered the former netnavi innocently. "Well, Hub, if you're not busy tonight, would you like to have a little tour around the school with me?," asked Sissi in a friendly, welcoming tone, though that demanding look in her eyes was a threat in itself. "Sure," replied MegaMan politely.

Had Odd and Ulrich been listening in on the conversation (which wasn't an easy task for they were on the other side of the room, where Jeremy and Lan sat), they would have immediately made hand gestures, used body language, erected signs, or utilized any means of communication to signal to MegaMan to answer _no._ However, because they could not do so, they were helpless against the new threat MegaMan had unleashed upon himself.


	6. Chapter 6

**Hello, everyone! As I got more into my story, I soon realized I would have to rely on one important tool; the transmission symbol. The transmission symbol basically shows the change of a scene and/or perspective. However, when I was trying to make transmission symbols in my story, the symbols I used would get deleted on the final product. However, I soon discovered that if I put a letter somewhere in the transmission symbol itself, it wouldn't get erased. Therefore, I decided to put letters in my transmission symbols. But these aren't random letters; they form a certain word or name that has some relation to my story. You don't have to solve the puzzle if you don't want to, but it's there for anyone who's interested.**

"Rock. . .paper. . .scissors. . .SHOOT!" Those words came out as a battle cry as the two combatants, Lan and Odd, prepared their attack. The area were the dramatic battle took place was the Hikari twins' new dorm room. "Would you two mind being quieter?," barked Ulrich, engrossed in his textbook. Normally, school books were the last on Ulrich's reading list; the exception being the looming threat of a test in the near future. "Sorry, Ulrich," said Lan. "But you can always go back to your room if we're bothering you." "I guess you're right," replied the Lyoko samurai, standing up from his seat and heading towards the door. "I can help you study if you want," offered MegaMan, tearing his eyes away from the Batman comic book Odd had provided for him. "Thanks, Hub," said Ulrich, sounding relieved that he didn't have to study by himself. However, that temporary good mood was interrupted by Sissi Delmas opening the door and summoning MegaMan to her side. "What do you want from Hub?," demanded Lan, standing up and taking a defensive stance. Odd, too, rose, and went to Hub's side, hoping to protect the young Hikari from the wicked witch of Kadic Academy. "He agreed to a tour with me, so I'm just picking him up," said Sissi coldly, staring at Hub's twin with scorn in her eyes. She wasn't struck spellbound by Lan as she did in his brother's case. In her opinion, Lan just didn't possess the charm or grace Hub had. "She's telling the truth, guys," confirmed MegaMan when he saw the expressions of disbelief on his friends' faces. "I agreed, so she has every right to ask me to come with her." Upon hearing that explanation, Odd, Ulrich, and Lan immediately protested, but Sissi was adamant; she would not leave until Hub came was coming with her. Finally, with the threat of complaining to her father, Sissi obtained her prize. Odd, Ulrich, and Lan had no choice but to give into the spoiled princess's command. Satisfied, Sissi exited the room with Hub, who wondered what he was getting himself into.

**```Later``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````**

The tour in itself was mildly interesting, but one portion of it made MegaMan wish he hadn't agreed with Sissi's request; she kept nagging him to disclose the secret of Jeremy's group. MegaMan knew the Lyoko warriors meant to keep that secret hidden and answered Sissi's questions with vague replies or complete ignorance. He wanted her to have the impression he knew very little about Jeremy and company, but Sissi still persisted. She only stopped when she got a first-person experience of what the Lyoko warriors had to fight when one of XANA's specters entered her body. The result was her frame wavering for a moment before XANA's symbol replaced the pupils of her eyes, signifying his complete control over Sissi's mind. Now, she was no longer the spoiled brat she was moments before; Sissi was turned into a dangerous adversary, controlled by a power-hungry super-virus. Realizing this from the eye-like insignia reflected in Sissi's pupils, MegaMan made a run for it. A smile curled on Sissi's lips as he did so, mirroring the opinion of XANA with regards to such actions.

_Futile gesture, _XANA said, using Sissi's mouth to speak. The voice sounded like a fuzzy recording, but MegaMan didn't have time to dwell on that as Sissi shot lightning-bolts at him. Even with his warrior reflexes, MegaMan was barely able to dodge the attack, for it was thrown with both speed and precision. The same held for the next round of lightning-bolts pelted at the former netnavi, who couldn't survive the entire onslaught and was soon hit by several electricity waves. He then succumbed to the only option: fainting. That reaction caused another grim smirk to spread across Sissi's face, displaying the glee of the virus controlling her. Moving Sissi like a puppet, XANA forced her to drag the unconscious body of Hub into the school, down the boiler room, and into the Lyoko warriors' secret factory.

**S````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````**

Putting the clock five minutes back before the capture of MegaMan/Hub, we see Jeremy's computer emitting a loud noise as if stating a danger alert. Popping open the lap top screen, Jeremy watched as his computer scrolled through several towers on Lyoko before outlining one with red and displaying XANA's emblem near it. "Just great. Activated Tower," Jeremy muttered to himself in an angry tone. Whipping his cell phone out of his pocket, the technical genius dialed the number of his friends, telling them to alert each other of the newest activity on Lyoko. His message was responded with each Lyoko warrior assuring their presence at the factory, which was the only good piece of news during any XANA attack.

**A````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````**

Odd's cell phone buzzed in his pocket, causing him to pull it out and click the _answer_ button. "Hello, Jeremy?," Odd said into the phone. "XANA alert!," shouted the computer whiz. "Activated Tower in the Ice Sector! Call Ulrich!" "What about L—", began Odd, but was interrupted by the sound of Jeremy hanging up. "Computer geniuses. Always in a hurry," huffed Odd. "What was that all about?," asked Lan. Odd's mobile had interrupted their contest of who was superior at video games and Odd had provided two Gameboy consoles for the tournament (Ulrich had left the room to study for the test coming up). "XANA attack. Jeremy called a meeting at the factory," said Odd, whose former smile was now a solemn frown. "XANA attack. . .," murmured Lan, his voice trailing off as he recited the term so new to his lips. In the brief overview about Lyoko, the factory, XANA, and the function of the Lyoko warriors, Jeremy had related that when XANA activated a Tower on Lyoko, he used it to attack Earth either by possessing a human being or utilizing an electric device.

Lan was surprised he remembered that, but now since that piece of information was so vital to know, he couldn't just force it back into his mind and forget about its contents. "I want to help," he said, his tone commanding rather than pleading. "I knew you'd say that," said Odd, gesturing to Lan to follow him. "C'mon. I'll take you to the factory." The two boys needed no further urging to head for the rendezvous point. Leaving their Gameboys abandoned on the floor, Odd and Lan made a dash for the factory, preparing to dive into an even more dangerous video game.

**I````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````**

XANA's puppet placed the unconscious body of MegaMan into the vacant scanner and launched the virtualization procedure. Limp and still, MegaMan's newly-virtualized body fell onto the ground. However, the fall did not rouse him and he remained motionless. Satisfied, the possessed Sissi exited the computer lab and entered the elevator to greet the uninvited guests upstairs.

**T````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````**

A group of four were standing in front of a large empty shaft, wide enough to fit an elevator, which was the device they seemed to be waiting for. "I wonder what XANA's planning for us this time," said Yumi. "I dunno," replied Ulrich. "But it can't be anything good." "Yeah. On that topic, where's Odd?," piped in Aelita. "Jeremy didn't you ca—" **_"SOMEONE LOOKING FOR ME?!,"_** announced a proud, booming voice as Odd Della-Robia ran to join the Lyoko warriors. Behind him was the figure of Lan Hikari, who was carrying a pair of roller-skates in his hand. "Lan, what are you doing here?," demanded Jeremy. "I never told you to—" "Cool it, Jeremy! He told me he wanted to come along! He was with me when you called about the XANA attack!," protested Odd, taking little notice that he had interrupted Jeremy. Well, like he cared anyway. "Odd, that's not the point! I didn't—" Jeremy was interrupted yet again by the elevator arriving. Taking the hint that no one cared to listen to him, Jeremy shifted his focus to the elevator door, which had opened to reveal the presence of a XANA-fied Sissi. "I guess we know the XANA attack now," Ulrich muttered before Sissi began shooting lightning-bolts at any and every target she could find. "Does this always happen during a XANA attack?!," yelled Lan as he barely dodged the electric rays of death. "To be bluntly honest," Aelita shouted back_. "YES!" _"Guys!," bellowed Odd. "I'll be the bait! Get to Lyoko!" The Lyoko warriors were used to that command and followed formation appropriately; scrambling for the elevator as Odd played decoy.

**O```````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````**

"Ugh. . .what happened. . .?," MegaMan moaned as he got to his feet. He was surprised to see himself in what appeared to be a forest, though it had the indication of being Lyokoean because of the large cables connected to the surface and the Tower at the end of the green path. "I'm in Lyoko. . .?," said MegaMan slowly, taking a brief observation of his surroundings. He spotted a pool of cyber-water near him and decided to glance at his reflection, the intended purpose for this action being a quick reality check. Indeed, MegaMan's suspicions were proven true when he saw his visage mirrored back at him from the pool's glossy surface. He was clad in navy-colored armor, with sky-blue stripes running down on either side of it. His gloves and boots were also a light blue shade; in fact, the only thing on his armor that was not blue were the canary-yellow pads were attached to his shoulders. However, the one thing that caught MegaMan's attention was the Hikari symbol displayed on his chest; there was no mistaking that emblem. It had the trademark red circle divided by a slanted black line, the whole design surrounded by a gold rim. The Hikari logo was also sported on either side of his blue helmet, where MegaMan's ears were supposed to be. In short, MegaMan was in his netnavi form, confirming his suspicion that he was in the virtual world.

"What's going on here?," whispered MegaMan, barely remembering the events that had transpired before he lost consciousness. Considering his current options, MegaMan decided his best chance was the Tower and hustled to reach it. However, XANA wasn't going to let him wander alone and had the courtesy of sending MegaMan some company. This band he sent included the whole seafood platter, five shell-fish like viruses along with a giant jelly-fish to go with it. The giant jelly-fish was what caught MegaMan's attention as it was the virus advancing on him. And seeing a giant jelly-fish advancing on you at any time or place is pretty scary, especially if you know he's working for a certain super-virus who is out to get you. However, even if you didn't know he was being controlled by that certain super-virus, you would still be frightened by his appearance. The jelly-fish virus, unlike the shell-fish, levitated, gliding across the land with surprising speed. He had a dome-like covering surrounding what appeared to be a memory bank and eight thin, long blue tentacles emerging around his body. XANA's eye-like emblem was displayed on his diamond-shaped head, making it all too obvious who the creature reported to.

MegaMan knew, from both instinct and common sense, that the jelly-fish was bad news and first retaliated by playing offense; firing his MegaBuster at the creature. When the virus easily dodged the shots, MegaMan resorted to a defensive measure; running in the opposite direction. However, the shell-fish monsters, which had not attacked until now, responded to MegaMan's action by displaying their disapproval of it; firing their own lasers. MegaMan evaded the shots and blasted lasers right back at his opponents, for he refused to go down without a fight. And a fight he got, though it was a brief one. The battle stopped when the jelly-fish coiled some of its tentacles around MegaMan's waist and hoisted him into the air, surrounding his body in a deep red aura. It placed three unoccupied appendages at MegaMan's forehead and began the procedure it had preformed many times. The jelly-fish began draining its victim's data, which traveled across its tentacles in a crimson liquid, transferred directly to XANA's memory banks.


	7. Chapter 7

Yumi, Ulrich, and Aelita hustled to the scanner room, positioning themselves in the virtualization device.

Meanwhile, Jeremy and Lan (who agreed to go to Lyoko if the group needed back-up) made a dash for the super-computer.

Jeremy sat in his usual chair (he was the one doing the virtualization, after all) and peered at the computer screen. What he saw caused his face to pale, a gurgled gasp to escape his throat and a near heart attack.

Hub's face was displayed on the monitor, along with a meter and a number next to it.

The meter's pallets were draining and the number was decreasing, telling Jeremy all too well what was happening on Lyoko.

A quick glance at the map also related what was going on; a blue triangle, which symbolized Hub's current location, was surrounded by five small red dots, which indicated five Krabes.

The big red circle standing near the blue triangle had the signature code of the Scyphozoa. "

Guys!," Jeremy yelled to his friends as he prepared the virtualization procedure. "Hub's being attacked by the Scyphozoa! I'll try to get you as close to him as I can!"

"What's the Scyp-thingy?," asked Lan, whose question was completely ignored by Jeremy.

The computer genius was now rapidly pressing the necessary buttons and coordinates for the virtualization process to take place. His efforts were not in vain as his friends were now being sent to the virtual world, the mission now hanging on their shoulders.

**Y```````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````**

Aelita generally loved Lyoko, with one exception: XANA.

On Aelita's list of things that she hated, sorely disliked, and deeply despised, XANA and Scyphozoa were tied for first place.

That was why when she saw the abomination to Lyoko grasping Hub with its tentacles, she gave a growl of fury and balled her fists in anger.

"Easy, princess," said Ulrich. "We won't let XANA get his claws on Hub. Yumi, you and Aelita deal with the Krabes. I'll dash ahead and deal with Mr. Ugly himself."

"Move it, you guys! Hub's been nearly drained!," came Jeremy's distressed voice.

The Lyoko warriors needed no further urging.

In appropriate formation, the Yumi and Aelita attacked the Krabes while Ulrich rushed at the jelly-fish, twin blades held in both hands.

The samurai would have been able to get a shot at the Scyphozoa had not William teleported in front of him, zweihander at hand.

The presence of William confirmed one thing: whatever XANA wanted from Hub, he wanted it very badly if he played his trump card so early in the game.

And William wasn't looking too happy when he saw Ulrich, which was actually a regular occurrence even before XANA took control of him.

In fact, Ulrich would have ignored it had the eyes glaring at him lacked XANA's symbol.

However, this was not the case and Ulrich had no choice but to charge into battle.

Right off the bat, William sent a shockwave hurtling at him, which Ulrich easily parried with his twin katanas.

However, that was merely a distraction as William teleported behind Ulrich and thrust his zweihander at his back.

Ulrich quickly sprinted out of the way and performed the triangulate maneuver; three Ulrich clones encircled William, dashing and moving at speed so great his movements looked like a blur to the naked eye.

William, unimpressed by the trick, slashed the clone nearest to him, which faded on the spot and broke the triplicate.

The two Ulrichs remaining rushed to avenge their fallen ally and both attacked William at the same time.

The black warrior was unfazed by this ambush and casually struck one of the clones in the chest.

However, the clone didn't die in vain for the moment William took to strike him, Ulrich got his chance to slash him with both katanas.

Immediately, William's body was once again fading into black smoke, but he refused to go down without taking Ulrich with him.

In one last desperate attempt, William thrust his zweihander right through Ulrich's body. The vital hit caused Ulrich to be devirtualizied and sent back to Earth, ending his most recent fight in a draw.

As he stepped out of the scanner, he heard Jeremy's voice announcing his defeat to his allies, along with urging them to set Hub free from the Scyphozoa. When Ulrich recalled his initial mission, he realized he had failed it; William was merely there to stall for time.

However, Ulrich wasn't completely useless now. He could go upstairs to play decoy with XANA's puppet; the original contestant needed a break from that dangerous game.

**U```````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````**

In the laboratory, Lan watched as the number and the meter next to MegaMan were decreasing, for his data was being leeched out of him by a jelly-fish monster under the employment of XANA.

Lan bit his lip as Jeremy had informed him that the newly-arrived red dot on the screen was the black warrior the Hikari twins had encountered during their first visit to Lyoko.

What could XANA want so badly from his netnavi?

He didn't have to search far for an answer; MegaMan had quite a large number of programs most netnavis would not have access to. Style-change, DoubleSoul, Beast Out. . .all those programs with the power to cause immense damage while in the wrong hands.

Lan felt his stomach churn at the thought of XANA using such power for evil; those abilities had helped Lan and MegaMan save the world.

The notion of them now assisting a sinister super-virus destroy the world was a terrible thought.

Dread filled the younger Hikari twin as MegaMan's data was being drained, his life was literally being snuffed out of him.

Lan felt even more nervous when Ulrich's triangle disappeared from the screen, indicating his defeat.

The only good news was that William's dot also vanished from the monitor, along with the five specks that symbolized the Krabes Aelita and Yumi had been fighting.

"Yumi! Aelita!," shouted Jeremy. "Ulrich has been devirtualizied, but the good news is the coast is clear now. You can free Hub and—" And then two Mega-tanks appeared on Jeremy's screen. "Never mind that. Two Mega-tanks at three o'clock!"

**M```````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````**

Yumi and Aelita had struck a deal to neutralize the current threat Jeremy had warned them about.

The basic agreement was Yumi frees Hub while Aelita blasts the Mega-tanks into oblivion.

It was indeed a simple arrangement, but actually executing it was the hard part.

"Energy field!," Aelita shouted as a pink sphere appeared in her hand. A second pink-colored orb emerged in her other hand, and Aelita flung both spheres with all her might. The result was one hitting the mark and the other being evaded.

Meanwhile, Yumi, standing on the other side of the field, acted without even hesitating. She was tired of always watching the Scyphozoa draining the life from Aelita and didn't want the monster to get its hands on a new victim. In the manner of a master frisbee player, Yumi flung both her fans at the Scyphozoa's tentacles, her accuracy deadly precise.

The razor-sharp projectile slashed straight through the tentacles, causing the Scyphozoa to finally release its prize; Hub fell to the ground, his eyes closed shut. Realizing that all was lost, the crippled Scyphozoa glided away. With the rescue complete, Yumi jumped into the air to catch her fans and pocketed them.

But, her warrior instincts told her not to celebrate yet. Indeed, the evidence of the danger being far from over was provided by a energy beam fired from a Mega-tank. However, the danger was only temporary as Yumi and Aelita quickly eliminated the threat.

"Great job, guys," said Jeremy's voice. "But we still have a Tower to deactivate in the Ice Sector. Take the Tower north of you to get out of the Forest Sector and into the Ice Territory. For the time being, leave Hub in that Tower. We'll tend to him once XANA's attack is neutralized."

"Ok, Jeremy," agreed Aelita. "

Do you think you can bring up the Over-wing, Jeremy?," asked Yumi.

"Consider it done," replied the computer genius, whose fingers danced across the keyboard as he entered the necessary commands to materialize the vehicle.

The Over-wing appeared conveniently next to Yumi, who placed Hub's unconscious body onto it and drove towards the Blue Tower in the distance. Aelita jabbed the star-shaped bracelet on her arm and her transparent angel wings flung themselves out of her back.

She glided next to Yumi as the two entered the Tower and deposited Hub on a platform. After which, Yumi and Aelita dove towards the black abyss at the Tower's bottom and emerged in the Ice Sector.

Luckily for them, the Activated Tower was not far away, easily spotted in the distance by its bright red hue. The two girls hustled to get to the Red Tower looming ahead of them. At first the road seemed clear, but Yumi and Aelita knew better. XANA, up to his usual tricks, had sent several monsters to protect the active Tower, and, as usual, they failed to do so.

**I````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````**

Meanwhile, in the real world, it seemed Ulrich and Odd were moments from their doom, but Aelita deactivated the Tower in the nick of time, imputing the Code: Lyoko before it was too late.

XANA's control over Sissi faded, and his specter was forced from her body, disappearing into the nearest outlet it could find. This resulted in Sissi fainting on the spot, which was what usually occurred when people were freed from XANA's enslavement. "Another job well done," muttered Ulrich as he stood up.

Five seconds later, a white bubble encircled around the world and the day suddenly repeated itself.


	8. Chapter 8

Odd and Ulrich, expecting to find themselves in gym class, were surprised to see that they were in the Hikari twins' dorm room, along with Lan.

Surprisingly, the return to the past only caused them to go a few hours back rather than a whole day. That never happened before; usually it was a full 24 hours or nothing.

"What just happened?," asked Lan groggily, only just realizing where he was. "Why are we suddenly back here again?"

"This is what we Lyoko warriors call, 'return to the past.' It's a program that lets us go back in time so no one remembers a XANA attack," replied Odd simply.

"How come no one remembers anything?," questioned Lan further.

"Jeremy will explain that to you," said Ulrich.

Lan accepted that answer and did not ask further. "Hey," he said slowly, performing a quick observation of the room to make sure he wasn't asking his next question in vain. "Where's Hub?"

Those two simple words caused Ulrich's and Odd's to bulge out of their sockets and suggest the only one solution: Jeremy.

Funnily enough, Jeremy seemed like he also desired an audience with the Lyoko warriors as both Odd and Ulrich received texts to head for the factory, Lan included.

Quickly, the three boys made a dash for the factory, only to be stopped by an angry Sissi in the hallway.

_"Where is Hub?,"_ she demanded, her tone a poisonous venom. _"I have been looking everywhere for him and I can't find him!" _

"Um. . .I don't know where he is!," answered Lan truthfully, feeling awkward he was talking to the girl who shot lightning at him.

Sissi, upon hearing the reply, rounded on Odd and Ulrich, thrusting the same question at them.

They both gave replies of ignorance, insisting they had the same status as Lan: they didn't know Hub's location.

Sissi reluctantly accepted the responses and headed back to her room.

The boys all gave a sigh of relief in union and, remembering their task, made haste for the factory.

**N```````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````**

Despair swept through the air. Sadness leaped from head to head, locking the factory in a deep, still silence. Grave expressions molded the Lyoko warriors' features, shaping their faces with the pain they felt on the inside. Pain so intense that it panged their very souls, for they were about to lose a member of their group.

At first, when Jeremy had explained the super-computer didn't have enough power to launch a full return to the past, the Lyoko warrior responded with understanding, as it tied in with why they were reset a few hours back rather than a whole day. However, when Jeremy expounded on the true purpose that he had summoned them to the factory, that was where the grief began.

He revealed that the return to the past apparently had no effect on Hub Hikari, which why he remained where they had left him: in one of Lyoko's Towers. However, that resulted in a problem, a problem that slowly ebbed away Hub's life.

The Scyphozoa had stolen so much data from Hub that his virtual structure became unstable. His data was breaking away into tiny fragments; a slow, painful deletion. The worst part of it was that a trip to Sector Five would _not_ do the trick; XANA would have scattered Hub's data all over the replicas, as he demonstrated he desperately wanted it. And because XANA made recovery of the stolen information was nearly impossible, that left Jeremy in a dire predicament. He needed Hub's exact data, for inserting random information would intensify the problem rather than combating it. However, not even the computer genius knew where to obtain this data; according to his understanding, the only memory bank with Hub's virtual information was the super-computer.

"Therefore," Jeremy concluded. "No other main frame could possibly have Hub's data as he is a human."

His conclusion was met with a bitter silence as the Lyoko warriors had no response.

However, the entire group had not been thrust into despair.

Lan's eyes glittered with the tint of hope. He knew another memory bank with Hub's data on it.

He fumbled around his pockets for his PET. Withdrawing the i-pod like device from his pocket, Lan clenched it tightly in his hands. He knew that displaying the PET would force him to state why he had it and that would lead to the eventual confession of MegaMan being a netnavi.

However, for MegaMan/Hub's life, he had no choice but to divulge that secret. Lan nervously looked around at the Lyoko warriors, but they were too engrossed in the intensity of the situation to notice him. He had to speak up, painful as it would be.

"Jeremy, I think I know another place with Hub's information." At that, five pairs of eyes darted to Lan Hikari, urging him to continue. Slowly, he opened his hand and revealed the device resting in his palm.

"A PET?," said Jeremy as he stared at the small blue gadget Lan held. A rotating Hikari symbol was displayed on the screen. "Lan, those things only help netnavis; it won't be of any use here."

At those words, Lan knew the lie would have to be unraveled. It had gone on long enough.

"Jeremy, it will help. Because Hub _is _a netnavi. _My netnavi_."

His words were met with raised eyebrows, confused expressions, and even a few gasps.

"That's impossible," said Jeremy quietly. "His DNA scans show he's completely human."

"Because he was made with human DNA!," Lan half-shouted.

"Then why does his DNA match yours?," Jeremy challenged. "Why does he look so much like you if he's a netnavi as you claim?"

"Because. . .," Lan hesitated for a moment, then resolved to continue. "Because his gene donor was my brother. He died as an infant and my father created a netnavi with his DNA."

"_No way!," _cut in Odd.

"It's true!," Lan insisted. "I wouldn't lie about something like this."

"Then if it's so vital, why didn't you tell us about this before?," Jeremy inquired further. "Why did you keep it a secret until now?"

"Because I thought you guys wouldn't believe me. I. . .I'm sorry, but that's not the point right now! Now we have to help Hub!," Lan half-shouted, his grip tightening around his PET.

Sweat dripped from his forehead and his eyes stared at Jeremy with an agonized glare. Lan was desperate now, caring about nothing else but his brother's life.

"Fine," said Jeremy at last. "Give me the PET. I'll install the information into Hub."

**T`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````**

MegaMan's eyes were steeled shut, for the pain he was experiencing was too much to bear.

He felt as if his body were rending apart, as if his limbs were breaking away one by one. Agony panged him from every angle, and he had no strength to stand.

Occasionally, MegaMan forced his eyelids open and what he saw compelled him to close them again. His body was a barely humanoid mass of data and weirdly distorted.

Chunks of gigabytes ripped themselves off and broke away from him, though MegaMan didn't have to see that to become aware of it; he felt the data severing from his body for painful sensation that soon followed attacked whatever limbs he had left.

His structure was fading into the black hole of deletion and MegaMan knew the agony would be his last sensation.

There was no cheating death this time.

Or so the netnavi thought.

When the layers of his data had gotten so thin and wavered that deletion was evident, the tides miraculously turned.

A hurricane of data suddenly emerged around his body, lifted him into an upright position, and poured itself into MegaMan's faded figure.

Instantly, his structure shuffled and reformed, recreating the limbs that had succumbed to deletion.

His body was reconfiguring at light speed, restoring what had been lost. Strength surged through MegaMan, replacing the agony that had panged his limbs moments ago.

When the data tornado engulfing him finally faded, MegaMan was left to be submerged in his thoughts and he was thinking of only one at the moment:

_Thank you, Lan._

The notion seemed to reach his brother for Lan's voice erupted from the sky. "MegaMan! Are you okay?"

"Yeah, Lan, I'm fine now, thanks to you," replied MegaMan. His eyebrows rose when he realized Lan had called him by his netnavi name. "Lan, you just called me 'MegaMan'. Does that mean. . .?"

"It does," confirmed Lan. "I told everyone about you being a netnavi." Quickly, before MegaMan could thrust the simple question of _why_ at him, Lan continued, "I had to or Jeremy wouldn't have installed your back-up programs."

"It's okay, Lan," said MegaMan. "You did the right thing. I probably would've done the same. And—"

"Um . . .guys?," came Jeremy's voice. "Your conversation is nice and all, but we need to bring MegaMan in before the school notices our absence."

"Bring me in?," asked MegaMan. "You mean back to the real world?"

"That's right," answered the computer genius. "

You mean I can rematerialize despite having a back-up program installed in me?," the netnavi inquired further.

"Of course," replied Jeremy. "Now, if you don't mind staying still for a moment while I enter the Code: Earth. . ."

"Oh. . .right. Fire away, Jeremy."


	9. Chapter 9

_Ba dump. _

_Ba dump._

_Ba dump._

The sound of his heart beat was the only thing MegaMan was hearing other than Lan's snoring.

He was lying on his bed face-up, staring at the roof with tired eyes. He was sunk deep in thought, for he had so much to reflect on. He had been attacked by some sort of monster with the ability to steal data, near the edge of deletion, restored to life, and dematerialized all in one night.

Plus, the Lyoko warriors knew he wasn't human, a secret hidden from the rest of the school. MegaMan knew they wouldn't breathe a word about that to anyone, but he feared that his secret would somehow get out anyway.

A sense of impending doom loomed over him, a feeling of dread that said danger was imminent. MegaMan was not one to ignore his instincts and he knew that this was a warning.

Catastrophe was about to strike.

**R````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````**

"W. . .who are you?!," the man cried, his voice raised with alarm. "What do you want with me?!"

He was staring at a figure swallowed by the shadows, but he felt fearful just by its presence.

"You don't remember me?," the other asked, his voice sounding like it was being echoed several times.

"W. . .why should I?!," shouted the first man. "I hardly remember my own life!"

"So the rumors are true. Your memory was erased. Pity," said the second. He stepped out of the darkness and allowed the man to get a good look at him. He was a boy, a teenager from the looks of it.

He had navy-colored hair and wore two shirts. The first was a long-sleeved red shirt and the one on top of it was a black T-shirt. He also wore blue jeans (that also included a belt) that were rolled up in order to show his brown boots.

As the boy advanced, the man saw an eye-like symbol reflected in both of his pupils, a sign he vaguely remembered.

Electricity was cracking at the teenager's fingertips, which caused the man to become utterly terrified.

"What. . .are you?!," he cried.

"Someone you will be remembering in a moment, doctor," the other answered.

As he advanced on the man, the man backed away, not wanting to be at the receiving end of any lightning bolts. However, the teen continued to approach, regardless of the man's reaction to him. Eventually their little game was stopped by the man's back hitting a wall, which meant he had nowhere left to run.

The boy was unfazed by the man's utterly terrified expression and continued to advance, until he was face-to-face with him. The teen stretched out his hands and his electrified fingers closed around the man's, sending a pulse of energy through his arms. A wave of electricity traveled through the man's body, sending shocks through his nerves.

For a moment, his eyes became blank, but then, in a literal blink of an eye, his pupils regained their focus. He looked at the teenager, and as if recalling what the symbol in his eyes stood for, reacted accordingly.

"XANA?," he asked, his voice calmer than it was moments before. "What is it you require from me? Why are you here?"

"I am in need of your assistance, doctor. On a side note, why was your memory erased?," said the teen.

"It was my father who did it," answered the man. "_Wily?_," the other laughed. "Why would he do that?"

"He said it was his duty as my father. Said he wanted me to live a life of good and-"

"And do you believe in his decision, Regal?," XANA challenged.

"No," replied Regal without hesitation. "I helped create you, XANA. How could you think I'd believe in good?"

A smile curled on the boy's lips and he said, "wise decision, doctor. Follow me. I have many things to discuss with you."

**O```````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````**

It was science class. And science class usually meant boredom in Kadic Academy. However, this lesson was an exception to that unspoken rule. For the eighth, ninth and tenth graders, which included the classes the Hikari twins and the Lyoko warriors attended, were having a short project for the day. It was an outing the school had already done, but since it was so successful, they resolved to do it again.

"FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO FORGET THE RULES," bellowed the bulky P.E. teacher Jim Morales. "THIS CLASS REQUIRES YOU TO. . .er. . .what was it again. . .?"

Morales paused in mid-sentence, as if forgetting what he was supposed to say. For assistance, the science teacher Mrs. Hertz walked over to him and whispered some words in his ear.

"Er, right! YOU AND YOUR TEAMMATES WILL BE DRAWING PLANTS! BUT THE ONLY PLANTS YOU DRAW MUST BE FROM THE FOREST ON SCHOOL GROUNDS! NO DRAWING STORE MADE PLANTS, PLASTIC PLANTS, FAKE PLANTS OR ANY KIND OF PLANTS! Er. . .except the forest plants. ANYWAY, MOVING ON! I'll announce who you are with. Uh. ..let's see now. . ." Morales paused again in order to whip out his list.

Upon seeing the arranged roster, he bellowed its contents to whoever was paying attention to him at this point. "STERN! STONES! YOU ARE WITH HIKARI!"

"Uh, that's great, Jim, but which Hikari?," Ulrich pointed out.

"HUB!," barked the P.E. teacher, splattering Ulrich's face with spit. "OTHER HIKARI! LAN! YOU ARE WITH DELLA ROBIA AND BELPOIS! AND NO JOKES DELLA ROBIA! MOVING ON-"

**C```````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````**

Ulrich, Aelita, and MegaMan decided to take a break from their project and sat down.

Leaning against a tree, MegaMan was introduced to yet another new sensation: the feeling of stiff bark pricking his back. The felling was unpleasant and he made the resolution to sit forward, which he did.

The former netnavi then took a quick glance at his notebook, which displayed the picture of a badly drawn flower, courtesy of Ulrich. The group, of course, had to share one notebook due to the rules of the expedition and that allowed them to see Ulrich's poor drawing skills at will.

MegaMan made a mental note to self not to mention that Ulrich's flower resembled a weirdly distorted doughnut rather than a plant and decided to start a conversation with his two teammates.

"Hey, guys," he said. "I heard a rumor that we're getting a new teacher. Did you hear anything about it?"

"What?," asked Aelita. "Who told you?"

"Sissi mentioned it to me at breakfast," replied MegaMan, shrugging.

"She could've made it up," said Ulrich. "By the way, Hub. . .I've been meaning to ask you this. . .you know that symbol on your necklace? That red and black symbol? What's it for?" Ulrich pointed to the Hikari emblem hanging from MegaMan's neck.

"Oh, this?," said MegaMan. "It's the family symbol. Custom netnavis usually have the symbol of their operator's family as their navi emblem. This—" he gestured to his medallion—"is the Hikari symbol."

"Interesting," commented Aelita. "Does it do anything else—other than displaying ownership, I mean."

"It does," said MegaMan darkly. "A navi's emblem contains 90% of their data. If it shatters, that's an instant deletion."

"_What?!"_

"I'm not kidding. In fact—"

MegaMan's last sentence was interrupted by Aelita's cell phone ringing. The volume was so intense it sounded like Aelita had set her phone onto blast. However, if it's your mission to protect the world from a destructive super-virus, no one can blame you for such a precaution.

"Sorry," said Aelita as she answered her mobile. "Hello?,"

"Aelita? This is Yumi," said the voice on the other line. "I just wanted to tell you that Jeremy says the super-scan has traced another replica."

"_Another one?," _said Aelita disbelievingly.

"That's right. Jeremy has called a meeting at the factory at 11pm."

"Eleven? Why so late?"

"I don't know. He just said that this case was a special one. He didn't specify how, though."

"Okay. Thanks, Yumi."

"No problem. Bye, Aelita."

"Bye."

**K``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````**

What comes to your mind when you hear the term "mission briefing"? Do you think of a conference of FBI agents discussing their next move? Of an army deciding the best route for conquering enemy territory? Well, whatever comes to your head, it's certainly not a group of school children conversing about a certain virtual universe and an independent super-virus. Plus, to make the situation even more far-fetched, how about tossing in a digital ship and clones of that certain virtual universe?

Yet, as strange as that scenario sounds, that was what had occurred in the factory of the Lyoko warriors. The Lyoko warriors, Hikari twins included, had to decide their course of action along with keeping the complicated circumstances in mind; the worst problem among them being the fact that the replica's super-computer was hidden in an occupied base. That issue made the seating arrangements in the Skid secondary.

Therefore, Jeremy had called the Lyoko warriors at the late hour of eleven to guarantee that no one would be at the base when they destroyed it.

As for the skid's seating arrangements, the Lyoko warriors were able to settle that without much argument; Jeremy had found a way to use Lan's PET to send battlechips on Lyoko or even on a replica.

The process was called plugging it in and setting up a link.

Therefore, that meant that Lan, as both MegaMan's operator and brother, would have to stay in the real world in order to use this newfound advantage. However, MegaMan, being a natural combatant on the Net, was going to join the Lyoko warriors in their quest to destroy XANA's replicas.

As Jeremy prepared the virtualization procedure, Lan, who was plugging in his PET couldn't help muttering under his breath, "_MegaMan! Battle routine, set!" _However, he didn't realize he was taking into the speakers, and MegaMan, who had heard what his twin had said, answered back, "_Execute!"_


	10. Chapter 10

**Hello, everyone! Sorry for the slight delay, but a few unexpected issues came out and that made it hard to update, but as you can see, here's Chapter 10!  
This chapter is mostly dedicated to the Skidbladnir (the ship the Lyoko warriors use to explore replicas built by XANA) because the Skid doesn't get that much action in later chapters. **

**But, anyway, without further ado. . .on with the story!**

"And then make another right, and you'll be in the Skid's docking room," Jeremy said. The five triangles that symbolized the Lyoko warriors came nearer and nearer to the desired room and it was only one right turn until they arrived at the Skid.

"Wow!," exclaimed MegaMan's voice. "It's amazing!"

"You like the Skid?," asked Jeremy.

"Yeah, you did an awesome job designing it, Jeremy," answered the netnavi.

"Thank you," said Jeremy proudly, clearly flattered that someone appreciated his talent at programming.

"Is there any way for me to see it?," demanded Lan. Jeremy, upon hearing Lan's request, complied by pressing a button and causing a visual of the Skid to appear on the computer screen. Upon seeing the Skid's image, Lan let out a gasp of awe and also complimented Jeremy for his work.

Indeed, the Skid, also called the Skidbladnir, was an impressive sight to behold.

Its function was to serve as a virtual ship for navigation through the network, but its appearance was not of a boat; rather, it looked like a hovercraft straight out of Star Wars. The Skid's head-like part served as the cockpit for directing its actions. The lower portion of its body consisted of four torpedo-shaped pods that were attached on all sides to the Skid's form. Finally, two thin, scythe-like wings arched on either side of the Skid's frame.

The virtual ship stood tall and straight, surrounded by five port-like mechanisms. Encircling the Skid's ports were flimsy platforms consisting of a series of loose planks. At the end of the unstable-looking stage was five round platforms, each with a circular, striped pattern of navy and white. The circle in the middle was the largest, four smaller circles branching around it.

"How do we get in?," asked MegaMan.

"Like this," said Odd, stepping onto one of the smaller, branching circles. The other Lyoko warriors followed his lead, each choosing to stand on a smaller circle.

The exception was Aelita, who stepped onto the largest shape, the circle in the middle. MegaMan, not wanting to be somehow left behind, mimicked his friends' actions and ran towards the final, unoccupied circle.

_"Energize!,"_ announced Jeremy's voice.

Static appeared around the bodies of all five warriors. Their forms faded from sight and reappeared in the Skid, Aelita in the cockpit and the others in the torpedo pods.

Aelita, sitting in what resembled a pilot's chair, grabbed the levers on either side of her and pulled them.

The port-like mechanisms surrounding the Skid retracted back, giving it the space it required to take off. The virtual ship ascended upward until it reached the top of Sector Five's celestial dome and flew away from it, gliding into a blue passageway of zeros and ones.

Once arriving at the end of the data tunnel, the Skid exited into the Desert Region and flung itself into the Digital Sea. Such an action in normal circumstances would have been suicidal, but the Skidbladnir did that regularly, for it was built to survive what was beyond Lyoko's boundaries.

And indeed, _beyond Lyoko_ was their destination. Upon reaching the edge of the sacred virtual world, the Skid exited Lyoko's sphere, its doors (which looked like a series of gray splinters arching in a circular shape) opening with a sickening creak.

Now, they were no longer in Lyoko; they were in the Network.

But a totally different network than MegaMan was used to. It had jumbles of wires and cords (all in gigantic size in comparison to the puny Skid) connecting and attaching in every which way and direction. It looked like a strange mixture of rods and sticks, all in blue color, stabled onto a dull, navy background.

"I'm entering the coordinates of the replica's location," said Jeremy.

"Take the hub that is northwest of your position."

"I see it, Jeremy," responded Aelita. The Skidbladnir switched to a horizontal position and made a 90-degree turn. It glided, almost gracefully, to a strange-looking contraption and converted back to a straight position.

The contraption was kept afloat in the air by many grotesquely-shaped cords and was circular, a rotating pool of orange and pink energy swirling at its core.

"Obtaining hyper-speed at three. . .two. . .," Aelita said, and, after pressing several buttons, announced, "_one!"_

The Skid thrust itself into the swirling energy and became coated with blue static as it did so. MegaMan, not used to the sensation of moving faster than the speed of light, had to fight the urge of vomiting though he had no digestive system to combat. However, the ordeal ended as soon as it began and the Skid soon emerged, in a different area than before.

Ahead of the virtual ship was a large sphere, with a long, bulky piece attached to the bottom. At the end of the piece was a door-like mechanism composed of a series of arched splinters. In the middle of the splinters was an item that appeared to be a lock, but the emblem etched onto it was a giveaway who owned the entire sphere.

The eye-like symbol of XANA made it obvious that the sphere was the replica the Lyoko warriors were targeting and the Skid made haste to reach the copy.

However, XANA wasn't willing to allow his enemies free access to his private replica and sent some guards to prevent them from entering. The guard battalion consisted of several eel and shark viruses, which was appropriate for combat in the Digital Sea.

The once blue background now reverted to an eerie red as the creatures made haste for the Skid.

"Releasing Nav Skids," said Aelita. She pulled several small levers and the Skid's torpedo-pods flung themselves away from the ship's frame. "Yeah, let's do this!," yelled Odd, clearly excited for combat.

"Odd, look out!," came MegaMan's warning. A shark virus had rounded on Odd's Nav Skid, but luckily it was in the range of MegaMan, who fired a torpedo at it. The attack landed with success and the shark disintegrated into dust.

"Hey, you pretty good at this Hub," commented Odd.

"I learn fast," said the netnavi as his Nav Skid glided away to do further combat.

Odd joined his lead, though he drove in the opposite direction.

Yumi and Ulrich were firing torpedoes in fast succession, striking one enemy a piece.

However, Ulrich didn't look where he was shooting and one torpedo nearly hit Odd, who dodged at the last moment.

"Hey, I'm on your side, genius!," he shouted.

"It was an accident!," Ulrich retorted.

"Guys, two sharks at four o'clock!," came Jeremy's warning.

"Leave this to the experts!," proclaimed Odd as he fired two torpedoes at the viruses. Both shots missed their mark, which would have been a bad thing had not Ulrich followed up with torpedoes of his own. The attack hit with the best of precision, successfully striking both sharks.

"_Experts, _huh?," he teased.

Fortunately for the Lyoko warriors, that mob of sharks was the last of XANA's fish fleet and they could now access the replica itself. The former red background reverted back to blue and the Nav Skids reattached themselves to the Skidbladnir.

The Skidbladnir glided towards the replica's sphere and stood in front of the XANA symbol on the replica's door-like structure. The ship shifted to a vertical position and its cockpit was now eye-to-eye level with XANA's insignia.

"Digital key, activated," Aelita said as she placed her hand onto the pad directly in front of her. On the outside of the Skid, the tiny hole right under the cockpit's glass visor glowed a pale blue, arranged itself into a beam of light, and fired at the XANA mark.

The effect was immediate; the emblem glowed a bright blue before the lock slid down and allowed the splinters around it to open. The Skidbaldnir seized its chance and flew through the newly-opened entrance.

The ship emerged in the replica's Digital Sea and ascended to the upper platforms. It was obvious in every which way that this was a copy of Lyoko's Ice Sector, for everything was in blue. Plus, the frozen surfaces, icy plateaus, and the overall arctic atmosphere were also a hint.

"Whoa, this looks just like Lyoko!," marveled MegaMan. "You guys don't call it a 'replica' for nothing!"

"Yeah, I guess XANA just loves Lyoko so much, he can't get away from it," said Odd. "Of course except for the time he tried to destroy it, but that's beside the point."

"_Odd!," _shouted the entire group at once.

"Sorry, guys," snickered the cat warrior. "I was just kidding."

"Wait, did XANA really try destroying Lyoko or was Odd also kidding about that?," asked Lan, clearly confused.

"Never mind that," groaned Jeremy. "Guys, there's a Tower not far from you. Dock the Skid there."

"Right. I see it, Jeremy," said Aelita.

She pressed several switches and the Skid made haste for Tower.

It was pretty easy to chose which Tower to dock at since there was only one in the vicinity, enveloped by a white hue. The Skid rotated around the Tower until it finally found a comfortable place to settle and stood still.

"Docking Skid," announced Aelita, jabbing the pad next to her seat.

A light pink force beam fired from the Skid's cockpit and latched onto the Tower's structure. Tiny pink comets of energy enveloped both the Skid and the Tower, acting almost like an anchor.

"Good job, Aelita," commended Jeremy. "Now let me activate the Tower for our own use."

The computer genius's fingers flew across the computer keyboard as he inputted the necessary commands, and soon his goal was achieved; the white aura of the Tower was replaced with a green hue, signifying Jeremy's control over it.

"You can activate Towers?," asked MegaMan.

"Of course I can," replied Jeremy. "I told you I could, remember?"

"Oh...yeah," said the netnavi, recalling what Jeremy had said during the mission briefing about the Skid and the replicas.

"So does that mean you can send us to the real world now?," he asked.

"It does," confirmed Jeremy.

At this point, Lan would have protested he hadn't been paying attention to Jeremy's _entire_ lecture, but to his credit, he had listened to some of it. Fortunately, that part included the exciting portion covering the process of sending the Lyoko warriors to the place in the real world where XANA hid the replica's server via the Skid.

"Can you send MegaMan to the real world with the Skid?," Lan asked. Jeremy frowned.

"Well, hypothetically yes, but I—"

"But what?," said MegaMan's voice.

"Well, it could be risky. I'm not even sure what would happen if you lost all of your life points. Theoretically, because of your human genes, you should come back to the Skid, but I'm not completely sure about that. The best thing for now would be to protect the Skid. I'll send Yumi and Odd to the replica's super-computer."

"Right," said Yumi.

The arrangement appeared to be random, but the Lyoko warriors knew the cause behind it; they had been targeting this very replica and had decided to send Odd and Yumi to destroy its super-computer.

However, as they went into Sector Five to board the Skid, a new symbol appeared on the holomap, thus forcing the Lyoko warriors to check it out. Yumi and Aelita decided to scan XANA's data in the Carthage Region for information on the new monster while Odd and Ulrich were sent to combat it. But it turned out to be Lan and MegaMan, attacked by William. . .

"Get ready, guys," came Jeremy's voice. "I'm launching the procedure. Energize Yumi! Energize Odd!"


	11. Chapter 11

A thin smile curled on Dr. Regal's lips. A few days ago, such an expression was that of friendliness, but now it resembled an arrogant smirk.

On the monitor of his computer, he watched as the Lyoko warriors mounted their ship and docked it on the replica.

In his opinion, the Lyoko warriors were already pathetic and easy to be conquered. They were a group of mere ninth graders with hardly any resources, a lack of advanced technology, and extremely vulnerable digital avatars_. _

However, even though he felt amused by his opponents, Regal cautioned himself not to underestimate them.

The scientist had underestimated the capabilities of his other enemies, Lan and MegaMan, several times before, and that turned out to be a big mistake.

But, Regal had learned from his mistakes, and he was different now. This time around, he had more resources, more equipment, _more power. _And with this power, he would avenge himself upon those who had defeated him. No matter what the cost.

And, it actually wasn't costing him a cent. Stealing technology from SciLab was much more convenient than buying some gadgets from your local hardware store. No waiting in line!

Yet, the best part about that heist was, besides the not-waiting-in-line part, was the fact that SciLab tried to keep the news of the stolen technology a secret. That was the reason why the robbery had not been mentioned on any news broadcasts or other media.

_They have a good reason for keeping that a secret,_ mused Regal when he had checked the media about the status of his most recent crime.

There was not a single word about the robbery nor even a mention of his disappearance. And Regal knew the reasons of keeping such facts hidden from the public. He had stolen such advanced machinery that just news of it being taken would have caused a mass panic, and his mysterious disappearance coinciding with the event would have roused even more fear.

And causing fear was the specialty of the former leader of Nebula. This was especially true after the incident with the Dark Chips.

The notion of Dark Chips caused Regal's snide grin to stretch wider, as that was one of the items he had stolen from the SciLabs. And now came the time to put them into good use.

"PlantMan, BlizzardMan, I have an assignment for you," he said to the air. The two desired Darkloids appeared behind him in the fashion of a hologram, both reaching out their arms.

"I know you want Dark Chips," Regal said. "Here you are."

He jabbed a button on his computer and two purple-colored chips appeared in front of the Darkloids, one for each of them. The tiny chips levitated in front of their heads, as if beckoning the Darkloids to use them. The duo of Darkloids complied, and each seized their own chip, a spiral of black energy enveloping the evil navis as they did so.

"You'll get more of them once you have completed your task," Regal said. "Just make sure you take care of the uninvited visitors."

And with a swift, dramatic gesture, the scientist presented the screen displaying the images of a cat boy and a Japanese girl.

**L```````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````**

"This is still too easy!," exclaimed Odd, as yet another door opened. "XANA's never gonna know what happened after we blow this place up!"

"_Odd!," _snapped Yumi angrily.

"Well, we are," pointed out the cat boy.

He knew what had touched Yumi's weak spot. The base was located near the borders of Japan, where Yumi was born. Yumi had always been sensitive about people mocking Japan and she wasn't fond of the idea of destroying a Japanese base.

However, that was what had to be done, and, when the two warriors entered yet another room, they were greeted with a large steel conveyer belt.

Large was actually an understatement for it because the conveyor belt stretched from Odd and Yumi's current location to the adjacent room, as there was an opening in the wall for such a purpose.

"Wow, this place has got a thing for these gizmoes," commented Odd. "Is this, like, the fourth one or something?"

"Fifth one, Odd," said Yumi.

Indeed, the base had plenty of conveyor belts, though most of them were filled with disassembled parts, broken machinery, and overall useless junk.

However, this conveyor belt, unlike the others, actually had a product on it.

A fleet of tiny, rectangular purple-colored chips were arranged in single file, being transported by the conveyor belt's movement. They were all being moved into the next room over, via the conveyor belt's access to it.

Yumi and Odd, realizing their expertise was needed in the adjacent room, made haste for the door connecting to it. They ignored the enormous army of purple chips for they had seen similar happenings on other replica bases, for one underlying principle always remained the same whenever XANA did any action: destroy humanity.

Therefore, the Lyoko warriors had one straight motivation whenever attacking a replica: blow it up.

Keeping that wonderful goal in mind, Odd and Yumi entered the next room. And what they saw was worse than anything a sci-fi movie could come up with.

The conveyor belt led to a large black dome-like machine that made horrific noises every time a purple chip crossed its threshold, which was every other second.

It also made stomping sounds, as if stamping something onto the tiny purple chips. On the other side of the dome-shaped machine was the finished product, a red and yellow orb placed on the outer front of the chip, swirling with sinister energy.

Attached to the dome-like contraption were a series of thick, bulky wires that connected it to a gigantic circular computer with multiple screens on all sides. Displayed on each interface was a crimson-colored XANA symbol. The emblem would blur every so often when a stream of electricity was released from the computer into the wires surrounding it, for the computer also had smaller, thinner cords attached from the roof and other nearby machinery.

One look at the computer told Odd and Yumi all they needed to know; this was the super-computer that was generating the replica's life, which meant it had to be destroyed.

The two warriors didn't need to consult with each other to confirm it; XANA's symbol was more than enough evidence. They both took aim, and each used their own respective weapon destructively.

The attacks would have connected had not a wall of thick, thorny vines suddenly emerged and deflected them like a shield.

"Not so fast," said a voice behind the two warriors. '

Hearing the voice of a new opponent caused both Odd and Yumi to immediately turn around, only to be ambushed by even more vines.

Yumi, being a skilled gymnast, reacted quickly with a backwards leap into the air.

However, Odd, not being fast enough, was soon ensnared and bounded by the prickly vines. Yumi, seeing her ally in danger, flung both her fans (which had returned to her after they had been reflected by the vine-shield) at the vines, forcing them to release Odd for they had become severed and cut when the fans connected with them.

"Humph. Impressive, for a human at least," mused the unknown opponent.

Rather than slinking on the sides as he had done moments before, the adversary chose to actually step into the battlefield, allowing both Odd and Yumi to get a good look at him.

And he had a good reason for hiding in the shadows for he looked rather silly.

His head had the appearance of a giant pink rose with two thorns, one on either side of the flower. A red gem stone rested on his forehead, contrasting greatly with his pupil-less jade-green eyes. On his shoulders rested two green shoulder pads with two small spikes poking out on each one. Each of his lower arms, also green, had a sac-like item that had the appearance of overgrown, bloated seed pods. Attached to his upper chest was an orange bow-tie that had the visage of two leaves growing side-by-side. The lower portion of his chest and the upper part of his body all had the same design; the outer section being white and the inner part being black, including two vertical rows of seven pink dots at the borderline. On his stomach was a strange-looking symbol, a white flower-shaped emblem on a black background, all surrounded by an orange rim. To further add to the flowery reference, his legs had a striped design of white, green, and pink, all of them being the colors present on roses. Finally, to cap it all off, two thin, prickly spiral-shaped vines were attached to his back.

"Who on Earth are you?," asked Odd. "VineMan?"

The adversary shot a deathly glare at Odd that clearly stated his disapproval of that name.

"My name is _PlantMan,_" he corrected, putting a lot of emphasis on the last word of the sentence. "And you shall regret challenging me! **Rose Needle!**"

The thorns on PlantMan's vines swelled and grew, propelling themselves at the Lyoko warriors.

"Shield!," yelled Odd as a round, purple-colored barrier emerged around him. The thorns bounced off the shield harmlessly and PlantMan gave a roar of rage. He fired more thorns in succession, aiming some at Odd and others at Yumi. Odd deflected the projectiles with his shield while Yumi protected herself with her fans or performed a dodge.

"Laser Arrow!," bellowed Odd as he fired several arrows at PlantMan.

Yumi followed suit, flinging her fans at the enemy.

"**Leaf Shield!**," shouted PlantMan, causing several giant-sized leaves to emerge around him. The leaves absorbed the Laser Arrows without harm, as if they were mere drops of water. The same held true for Yumi's fans.

PlantMan smirked, and, raising both his hands into the air, he yelled, "**Yellow Flower! Red Flower! **Come!"

The attack name itself wasn't at all intimidating, but the effects of it greatly made up for that. Two enormous roses, one yellow and the other crimson, suddenly blossomed on either side of the Lyoko warriors. Their pedals spread open and armies of pollen scattered in every which way and direction.

And, as if avoiding the bothersome pollen wasn't enough, PlantMan also decided to rear up with summoning more vines and firing more thorns.

"Jeremy, we have a problem here!," shouted Odd.

And, as if to prove that true, Odd's own barrier shattered.


	12. Chapter 12

**Hi, everyone! I'm so sorry I took so long to update, but I kept editing and re-editing this chapter to make sure it was perfect. I'm really bad at writing fighting scenes, and this chapter is full of them. I'm also sorry if everything seems a bit confusing in this chapter, but a lot of fighting is going on, so expect confusion. **

**Anyways. . .on with Chapter 12!**

At first, everything seemed easy on the Ice Sector replica.

XANA merely sent several Blocks to deal with the Lyoko warriors and the monsters were defeated with ease.

However, the difficulty of the battle immediately shot up on the scale when a Darkloid and an army of viruses arrived at the field. Though the virus battalion consisted of several basic viruses—such as Mettuars, Swordys, and Flappys—their great numbers greatly rectified that. And the Darkloid himself looked as though he was customized to fit right at home on the Ice Replica.

He wore a huge snow-hat that obscured most of his face (with the exception of his eyes), wore a pair of skis, complete with the ski poles, and even had a snowball-shaped body.

"BlizzardMan?!," exclaimed MegaMan as the Darkloid and his virus army came into view.

"You know that guy?," asked Ulrich.  
"

We've met," answered BlizzardMan. "And, here's a little something for old time's sake, Mega. **Blizzard Breath!" **

An immense amount of ice emerged from BlizzardMan's mouth, and blasted itself towards MegaMan, Ulrich, and Aelita. They would have gotten pelted had not Lan reacted when he did.

"_Barrier!_ Battle Chip in! And download!"

A dome-shaped barricade of energy emerged around the warriors, shielding them from the chilly attack.

However, the viruses weren't willing to sit idly by and also got into the act. But, instead of attacking the Lyoko warriors, they aimed for the bigger prize; the Skid!

Jeremy had announced the Skid's assault (with his voice at an unreasonably loud volume) and urged his friends to protect it at all costs. No more needed to be said as the Lyoko warriors were already working on the task.

Ulrich, utilizing his super-sprint and triplicate abilities, along with the reach and convenience of his twin katanas, began causing double and triple deletions as he sped past every group of viruses. Left and right, Swordys disintegrated, Flappys faded back into raw pixels, and other viruses also fell. Aelita, taking on the weaker viruses out of fear of devirtualization, jabbed her star-shaped bracelet and took to the air, blasting energy fields at every Mettaur in sight.

In the middle of the battlefield, a titanic duel between Darkloid and netnavi was taking place. MegaMan fired several shots from his MegaBuster and BlizzardMan retaliated with his own icy attacks, either freezing the lasers or negating them altogether.

"_Elec Sword! Area Steal! _Battle Chips in! Download!," shouted Lan's voice.

MegaMan's arm-cannon disassembled and reassembled itself into the desired weapon.

For a moment, he remained still, but then the Area Steal battle chip activated, warping him across the field and right behind BlizzardMan. However, the Darkloid responded with an attack of his own.

"**Snow Rolling!**," he bellowed as he summoned a large, bulky snowball and flung it at MegaMan. The netnavi's sword slashed right through the snowball and it crumbled.

"**Rolling Slider!**," BlizzardMan yelled. He curled himself into a ball and flung his body at MegaMan, resembling a snowball as he did so. MegaMan, who had to sacrifice his sword to get rid of the previous attack, was caught off guard by his opponent and thus was hit by BlizzardMan. And the description _hit by BlizzardMan_ was not metaphorical; it literally happened. The Darkloid's body rammed into MegaMan, causing the netnavi to be hurled off the icy ledge and straight into the Digital Sea.

At least, he would have fallen into the Digital Sea had not Lan been quick on the uptake.

"Gyro Soul! Navi Chip in! Download!," he announced.

The Soul Chip activated and MegaMan's bodysuit began changing from navy to canary yellow, as was appropriate for the desired Double Soul. But then, inexplicitly, the transformation came to a screeching halt and MegaMan was forced back to his original form, his figure suddenly being coated with electricity. It was a painful sensation and MegaMan felt as if his systems had overloaded. However, despite the volume of the buzzing sound in his ears, MegaMan heard Jeremy's angry voice over it.

"Lan, what did you just do?!," Jeremy was saying. "MegaMan just lost 40 life points!"

"I don't know!," came Lan's distressed reply. "I just tried using Double Soul!"

"Double _what_?," asked the computer genius.

"Explanations later!," Lan snapped. Quickly, the young Hikari fumbled through his pockets and withdrew a different Battle Chip.

"Air Shoes! Battle Chip in! Download!," he shouted as he inserted the desired chip into his PET.  
MegaMan felt the chip data downloading and the bottom of his boots ignited, like a rocket preparing for take-off. Utilizing the power of the Air Shoes, MegaMan flipped himself over (so that he stood upright) and sped upwards.

Just the sight of his reappearance on the scene told BlizzardMan all he needed to know; the battle was far from over. But the Darkloid had been looking forward to this; it was time to get revenge on the netnavi that had defeated him in the past. And, if the circumstances wavered towards the other side's favor, BlizzardMan had one final trump card to tip those scales.

**H``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````**

It was a nightmare for Jeremy in the lab. MegaMan had lost 40 life points for no reason, a legion of viruses were attacking the Skid, and, to cap it all off, a new threat emerged.

"Jeremy, we have a problem here!," yelled Odd's voice from the speakers.

"Odd?," said the computer genius. "What's going on?"

"Yumi and I are in the super-computer lab, and this guy, VineMan—"

"_PlantMan!_," snapped a second voice. Following that word was the echoing blast of projectiles firing, a battle-cry from Odd, and the sound of glass shattering at 50X its normal volume .

Jeremy cringed for that last sound was even louder because of his headphones and asked, his tone shaky, "_What was that?_"

"That was PlantMan destroying my shield," answered Odd simply. "Any advice, Einstien?"  
"

No, sorry," said Jeremy, who had never heard the name "PlantMan" prior to that moment. Fortunately, Lan, who was downloading another chip for MegaMan, was also present in the lab, and he knew all too well who PlantMan was.

"Odd, he's weak to fire!," Lan said. "Use any fire attack on him!"

"Great idea, but I _can't _use fire attacks! This isn't Galactic Invader II, you know!," Odd retorted.

"Then try something else!," yelled Jeremy.

Lan rubbed his temples. If PlantMan was there, he reasoned, a Dimensional Area had to be active. . .

"Odd, try destroying the Dimensional Area!," he said.

"The _what?_," asked both Odd and Jeremy together.

"The Dimensional Area," Lan repeated. "Did the area become filled with weird colors when PlantMan appeared?"

"What does that have to do with anything?," demanded Odd.

"That's just what happens when a Dimensional Area pops up," explained the Hikari.

"Oh. You could have said that soon—YIKES!" Unfortunately, Odd never got the chance to finish his sentence for that was one of the disadvantages of fighting a Darkloid; you never get to complete a thought.

Several bangs were heard and Odd yelped. From the way it sounded, PlantMan had launched several hordes of thorns at him, and Odd attempted to dodge the attack. However, both from his shout and the decrease of life points on the Odd's health bar confirmed that the cat boy had been hit. The thud that was heard at the end of the sequence seemed to suggest Odd had collided with a wall.

"Odd, are you alright?!," exclaimed Jeremy.

The swishing sound of objects being thrown along with a Japanese battle-cry answered Jeremy from the angry roar of PlantMan that followed, one can easily tell he was hit by the attack.

"Nice one, Yumi!," shouted Odd's voice.

"Take this, human! **Rose Needle!," **barked PlantMan. And the reverberating echo of multiple projectiles firing blasted Jeremy's ears.

**U````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````**

On MegaMan's end of the fight, things weren't faring much better.

He obtained the Wide Sword and Long Sword thanks to Lan, but he never got the chance to strike with them for he had to use both weapons to parry BlizzardMan's chilly (pardon the bad pun) attacks.

He alternated between the blades as he protected himself, for defense was the netnavi's only option as of this point. He heard Lan's voice over the speakers, but he knew that what Lan was saying wasn't directed to him.

From the way it sounded, Lan was advising Odd about something. He wasn't following the conversation, for doing so **_and _** concentrating on BlizzardMan's movements was nearly impossible. But, MegaMan didn't have to worry about Lan for long. The younger Hikari soon got back into the act and shouted,

"Area Steal! Battle Chip in! Download!"  
The chip activated and MegaMan found himself teleporting behind the Darkloid.

"Now, Lan!," said MegaMan as his adversary turned around. "The Program Advance!"

"Right!," Lan agreed. "Here we go—Cyber Sword, battle chip in! Download!"

MegaMan felt the weapon being transferred to him and he knew he only had seconds to react. He lifted both his arms (each having a different sword in the location of the hand) into the air and held his hands together. The weapons on each arm seemed to notice the presence of one another, and, as if suddenly desiring to merge together, they both glowed a bright neon blue. When the third sword joined their trio, the glowing light intensified, and one long, thin blade, at least twice any sword's height, formed.

The Program Advance was set.

Holding the transparent hilt of the Life-Sword with both his hands, MegaMan put all of his weight and strength into the single thrust that would send the newly-formed weapon hurtling after his opponent. His knees bent, his back arched, and with all the power he could muster, MegaMan slammed the immense blade into the ground.

A lone blue shockwave that vaguely resembled a star-shape emerged from the Life-Sword, and, with a loud bang, collided with BlizzardMan.

The Darkloid was literally blasted off his feet, overwhelmed by the sudden burst of power, and struggled to get back up.

It was actually mildly amusing to watch the snowball-shaped netnavi struggling to regain his footing and MegaMan would have had an ample time to strike him had not several Mettuars materialized in front of their leader, determined to protect him.

"Met met!," the four viruses cried in union, summoning their pickaxes and sending shockwaves at MegaMan.

The blue netnavi dodged the attack with ease, and, since he was dealing with the weakest species of viruses, used his MegaBuster to retaliate. Several shots were more than enough, for each Mettuar was deleted on impact.

However, their purpose was to serve no more than a distraction and by the time MegaMan had finished them off, BlizzardMan was finally able to stand up. But, even now his balance was shaky and his legs trembled. He struggled to keep his posture straight and used his ski poles for support, jabbing them both into the ground to help him stay balanced.

He was gasping, hungering for energy, and knew the time to play his final trump card was now. He reached out a shaky hand and a small purple chip materialized over his palm, hovering several inches in the air.

BlizzardMan's fingers closed around the tiny chip and black energy enveloped him.

**B```````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````**

Yumi unfortunately was caught in a jam; PlantMan would not stop firing thorns at her, and avoiding contact with the projectiles was easier said than done. However, luckily, Odd soon regained his composure after being hurled toward the wall and rejoined the fight.

That was the only advantage the Lyoko warriors had over PlantMan; it was two versus one, though the odds pointed more to the Darkloid's favor.

He was stronger than the two of them, especially after he had used some sort of purple chip to further enhance his power.

Plus, Yumi could tell that, at this rate things were going nowhere; both she and Odd were low on life points and PlantMan was just getting more powerful. They were never going to be able to defeat him now given the current circumstances. They just needed a way to get to destroy the super-computer, and, once they did that, it would make no difference whether PlantMan defeated them.

And then the idea struck Yumi like lightning. Perhaps PlantMan was blocking their way, but what if they didn't have to get past him at all?

She glanced at the dome-like machine stamping little orbs onto purple chips. It was perfect for her plan. And she had picked the perfect time to execute it.

Odd was currently the center of PlantMan's attention, which was one of the conditions Yumi had needed to execute her plan.

She placed the tips of her fingers at her forehead and closed her eyes, concentrating. Her upper frame glowed with a dull white hue, and, behind her, the gigantic dome-shaped machine rose several feet into the air.

Yumi closed eyes squeezed tighter, as if the weight of the contraption was hurting her and she concentrated harder. She reached out one of her glowing arms and thrust it sideways. The machine mimicked her movement, sliding itself forward. She raised her hand upwards and the machine rose higher. Another sideways thrust and the object glided until it was levitating above the base's super-computer. Yumi then lifted both her arms into the air. Her eyes scrunched even tighter and her face twisted, as if she were supporting an elephant on her shoulders. With one last painful motion, Yumi flung both her hands downwards, and the machine, guided by an invisible force, slammed itself violently onto the computer directly below it.

A loud bang confirmed the impact. Instantly, both Odd and PlantMan halted their battle just to see what had made the noise. And, though they both saw the same sight, Odd cried in triumph and PlantMan lamented his loss.

The force of the collision caused the replica's super-computer to short-circuit, which was evident by the amount of static that engulfed it. Worse came to worst and the electricity became more intense, completely enveloping the computer.

The mission was a success.


	13. Chapter 13

**Hello, everyone! I'm sorry I took so long to update, but my computer decided to be mean and I had some technical difficulties to deal with. But, now I'm back, so all's well that ends well!**

**However, I am behind scheldule, so expect the next update in two weeks from now. Sorry about that, but I'm trying to update as quickly as possible.**

**Anyway. . .on with Chapter 13!**

Dr. Regal was no longer smiling.

He watched, with a strange fusion of horror and anger, as the dome-shaped part of his Dark Chip machine being lifted into the air by an invisible power. That same mysterious force was somehow able to direct the machine's movements and caused it to fall directly on his server.

Regal gave a hiss of fury when he saw the machine slam down onto the computer and swore loudly when the entire contraption erupted in sparks. He also slammed his fist on the table and knocked down his chair when he saw the ship of the Lyoko warriors escape the replica unharmed.

"Dr. Regal, that was uncalled for," rebuked LaserMan. Regal rounded on his navi and shot him a death glare.

"_Shut up!," _he snapped, again acting out of character.

"You're talking slang again," pointed out LaserMan, knowing full well his operator hated the modern teenage language. A vein pulsed on Regal's forehead and he scrunched his eyebrows together.

"_They_ always slip past my fingers again and again. What do I keep doing wrong?!" The doctor tried to keep his voice level, but anger was evident in his tone. He was getting frustrated, and LaserMan knew it wasn't long before his operator started ranting.

"Dr. Regal, they just get lucky," LaserMan said soothingly. "Their luck will run out soon. They're just children. They have no power to stand up to us."

Regal wrung his hands in anguish. "We've always assumed that about our enemies! And look what happens! Already, Lan and MegaMan have already beaten me twice!" he barked.

"Perhaps that is true, but they are weaker now," LaserMan reassured him. His voice was still calm, but it carried a note of confidence. "As you recall, the Double Soul data MegaMan needs to transform has been taken from him. He cannot hope to stand up to us without it. WE will crush him. Him and Lan."

Regal's expression brightened at this. "Yes, I suppose you're right, LaserMan. He's weaker. . ." His face was dreamy, as if a thousand miles away. "Plan. . . XANA. . .replica. . .," he muttered.

At this, LaserMan sighed. It was the limits of human nature taking place once again; ever since Regal regained his memory, his sentences were sometimes disconnected, as if his brain had trouble functioning. Perhaps Wily had rattled his son's brain permanently with the Soul Net.

_Plan. . .XANA. . .replica. . ._horrible grammar.

**G```````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````**

The van sped out of control.

Correction; make that an _armored truck_ speeding out of control.

And, when vehicles of that caliber go berserk, one expects a police officer—or perhaps a whole squad of them—to pursue it.

However, in this case the unexpected occurs as the pursuer was a young teenage boy.

But, one must not underestimate this particular boy because of his age and appearance.

He was what one would term a prodigy and he had quite a reputation among net-battlers and bad guys alike. Easily recognizable by his dual-colored hair, this boy wore a long-sleeved black shirt, a red vest over that article of clothing, and green army pants.

He withdrew a red PET from his pocket and pointed it at the speeding truck.

"Jack in, ProtoMan!," he yelled. A thin red beam of light shot out from the gadget and into the back of the vehicle.

"Chaud, sir!," said a voice from the PET. "I need some Battle Chips."

"I know," replied the boy. He inserted two chips into the PET, each displaying a picture of the Swordy virus that were color swaps of each other.

IN THE CYBER-WORLD

ProtoMan felt the chip data being transferred to him and two swords—one aqua element and the other fire—replaced his hands.

With the two weapons literally at hand, (pardon another horrible pun) ProtoMan, being very agile, charged at the viruses present on the battle field. The opposing side, mostly comprised of low-level viruses, had such a pathetic resistance to ProtoMan that one could hardly call it a battle. They were all defeated in a literal swipe of a sword. But, when the reinforcements arrived, ProtoMan got a real challenge.

Especially since they were a virus species the netnavi had never seen before.

They were rather strange-looking creatures, vaguely resembling giant spiders. They each had four jointed legs and made strange clinking noises as they walked. Attached to the tips of their forelegs were thin silver laser cannons. However, the most notable part of their appearance was what seemed to be their heads. What appeared to be their faces had no eyes, lacked a nose, and didn't possess a mouth; rather, a strange eye-like emblem replaced these features.

Two of these unidentified viruses approached ProtoMan, who raised both his swords as both a warning and a defensive measure. When the two creatures were in shooting range of the red navi, they stopped moving, kneeled down on their hind legs, and began firing lasers from their foreleg cannons. ProtoMan, being both coordinated and fast, dodged the shots and lunged at one of the viruses.

Charging head-on at the enemy seemed like a rash and stupid move, but, when placing the Area Steal battle chip into the equation, one would say the opposite.

Chaud reacted perfectly, as if reading ProtoMan's mind, and immediately activated the Area Steal chip upon seeing his navi's actions. ProtoMan's frame became invisible for a split second before he warped so fast across the battlefield he was but a mere red and purple blur. When he reappeared, he was directly in front of one of the viruses. Utilizing both his speed and skill, ProtoMan bashed both of his swords into creature's stomach, destroying it instantly.

However, the other combatant wasn't too happy about his ally's death and decided to avenge him. This virus advanced several paces and, once in range of ProtoMan, predictably began firing lasers from its leg cannons.

ProtoMan, being forced to sacrifice his two swords in order to defeat the first opponent, was by no means left vulnerable and defenseless. His right arm glowed and a large circular red shield with a white rim formed in front of him. Smirking, ProtoMan watched as the deadly lasers bounced off of the shield's shiny surface and hit the very virus that had fired them.

A few impacts and the virus disintegrated, as if it was never there.

In The Human World

Chaud breathed a sigh of relief when the speeding truck began to slow down until it screeched to a stop. He had gotten tired of chasing after it and felt tears of sweat running down his face. Panting, he approached the back of the vehicle.

"ProtoMan, could you open the doors for me?," he asked his navi.

"Yes, sir," came the reply.

The truck's iron shutters rattled open and Chaud gingerly climbed inside. Several large crates, some concealed by drapes and others left uncovered, were there to greet him.

Chaud approached one of the uncovered containers and hefted its lid open. Inside was a family of egg-shell colored life-size dummies. Chaud scowled.

"Copybots. . . ," he muttered.


	14. Chapter 14

** LAN'S PERSPECTIVE**

Several days have passed since the success of the our most recent mission, destroying that replica.

Now, MegaMan and I have been in Kadic for almost a week and a lot has happened over that time. It's been hard for me to adjust away from home, but for MegaMan, I'm sure it's much harder. Shifting the scene a bit, you can see me on a typical school morning, still asleep and snoring. MegaMan's already prepared as usual and is doing what became his job ever since the first day of our journey together. . .

I was having the most amazing dream. I dreamt that Chaud and Rauol were dressed in stereotypical disco costumes, wearing Afro wigs, and wailing on their identical guitars like rock stars.

However, my wonderful dream came to a close when I was (literally) shaken awake by my twin.

"Lan, get up! We're going to be late!," said MegaMan's voice.

I felt my body being jerked back and forth and realized that MegaMan was rocking me even harder. I pulled up my blankets over my face and grunted.

"Five more minutes. . ."

MegaMan sighed. I could tell he didn't approve of my answer, but in my defense, I was tired. I rolled over and buried my head in my pillow, hoping my message would get across. _I'm not getting up and you can't MAKE ME!_

However, MegaMan wasn't willing to back down and accepted my challenge.

"Lan, get up! XANA's attacking!," he yelled.

I know I was stupid to fall for that old trick, but MegaMan sounded so convincing even **I ** believed it. I bolted upright and anxiously looked around, my eyes blinking rapidly.

"What? Who's he attacking?! What's happening?!," I shouted, genuinely terrified.

When I narrowed my eyes on my twin and saw that he was laughing, I realized that it was just an April Fool.

"He hasn't attacked anyone yet," MegaMan replied. "Now get dressed before he really does start attacking." He deposited my clothes on my lap to stress his point. "That's not funny," I said.

"Well, how else am I supposed to wake you up?," he teased. I laughed. He really **did** have a point there…

"Fine. I'll cooperate just this once," I teased back, giving MegaMan a playful bonk on the arm. He smiled. Then the two of us just broke out into laughter for no apparent reason. That's just how brothers are, I guess.

I'm still getting used to having one.

**L`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````**

The lunchroom was crowded. A loud cacophony of mixed noise was there to greet my twin and I when we entered the mess hall. MegaMan's fingers clenched around my hand tightly, as if all the noise made him nervous. I understood how he felt.

Crowded places always made me jumpy, too.

"We should find a place to sit down," I suggested, hoping that getting settled in would make him feel better.

"Yeah, but don't we have to get in line first?," MegaMan reminded me.

That was my brother for you. Always remembering what I tend to forget. I was still getting adjusted to living in a dorm and forgot we had to serve ourselves the food.

"Yeah, right…," I said.

The lunch line (or, in this case, breakfast line, as it was still the morning) was pretty easy to find. I mean, a whole string of kids holding empty trays must indicate a lunch line, right? And I wasn't too happy when I saw the length of the line. I already knew I'd be here to next week holding an empty tray.

"We're gonna be here for hours," I moaned.

"Lan, you're exaggerating," laughed MegaMan. "It won't take that long."

He handed me a tray and allowed me to stand in front of him in the line.

"There," he said. "You're ahead of me. If anyone has a reason to complain, I do." I chuckled.

MegaMan had the uncanny ability to find humor in any situation. That was one of the traits I really appreciated about my brother. Without getting all cheesy, Hub was always able to pick me up when I was feeling down. It felt good to be with him and I preferred things this way rather than the alternative of a PET.

Of course, there was one exception to this rule. . .Sissi Delmas. Whenever she showed up, it was always to pester my brother. It was during those times I wished he was in a PET so I could just stow him in my pocket, put on my rollerblades, and skate far away as possible.

And why did I suddenly start complaining about Sissi Delmas? Because she was now standing right next to MegaMan and talking to him. Surprisingly, the spoiled princess was alone, without her two mindless slaves by her side as usual. But, she didn't need them anyway. Sissi had approached my brother and I after we had exited the line with our trays full of food. We couldn't run away without spilling our cereal all over the floor. And we couldn't use the excuse of waiting in line either.

"You're a. . .journalist?," I heard MegaMan say. He sounded baffled.

"Well, yes," replied Sissi, taking out a notepad and pen. "Can I interview you, Hub? It's for the next issue."

At that, I realized MegaMan was in serious trouble. An interrogation from Sissi was just as bad a virus attack. Or maybe even worse. I just had to bail him out of it. Unfortunately, the only weapon of choice I had was words. No Area Steal.

"Who'd buy your stuff?," I challenged.

Sissi glared at me. "Lots of people would, Lan," she retorted.

"Yeah, if you paid them to read it," I said back.

She growled. "I'll have you know, Lan, that today's issue will have such interesting material, you'll beg me for a copy!," Sissi half-shouted.

"Sure. I'd beg you to burn every copy," I responded, hoping my tone was obnoxious enough. Apparently it was, for Sissi decided to play her invincible trump card in the argument.

"I'll have you know I've gotten permission from my father to interview Hub," Sissi told me. "If you have any complaints, go discuss it with him."

I glared at her. Just typical! She had to drag the principal into this. I couldn't think of an obnoxious retort for something like that. The spoiled princess shot us both piercing glares before finally issuing her royal command.

"Well, Hub, are you coming or not?," she demanded.

There was an awkward silence, until MegaMan spoke up.

"I. . .I'm coming, Sissi," he replied meekly. My jaw dropped.

"What?!," I hissed. MegaMan faced me for a moment.

"Lan, I don't want you to get in trouble," he whispered.

"But…but Mega-!" I tried to protest, but my brother shot me one of his best warning looks yet. I became quiet instantly.

And in silence, I watched as Sissi guided my brother towards her table, which was **conviently** (I hope you detect the sarcasm there) on the other side of the lunch room. Unfortunately, that area was swarming with people and MegaMan and Sissi seemed to vanish as they went into the crowd.

I sighed, and wandered through the lunch room, searching for a suitable seat. It didn't really help that the food on my serving dish was stacked in disproportionate amounts, either. The tray wobbled as I walked and I didn't like the way my cup of orange juice was tipping from side to side. Even my legs felt shaky as I tried to gain some balance. I dearly hoped I was coordinated enough to at least reach a table without tipping my tray over, but the chances were getting slimmer with each step.

Then, I nearly dropped the entire thing for I heard a proud, booming voice announce my name.

"HEY, LAN! OVER HERE!"

The flinch that resulted from that outcry nearly caused me to drop my tray, but I quickly regained my composure.

I turned to the direction where the shout originated and saw Odd sitting at a table with Ulrich and Jeremy. Odd was waving to me and Ulrich was rapidly patting the empty seat next to him, a gesture that indicated he wanted to me to sit next to him. However, Jeremy paid me no regard as his face still remained hidden behind his lap top.

"Hi, Odd," I said as I slowly approached the table. Carefully, I placed my tray down before taking the seat next to Ulrich. "'Morning, Ulrich. 'Morning, Jeremy," I said as I got settled in the chair.

"'Morning, Lan," Ulrich replied. Jeremy had no response at all.

"Don't mind Jeremy, Lan," Odd said to me. "He's working."

"Yeah, I'll say." I paused for a moment and then asked, "What's he working on?"

"I dunno," answered Odd.

"He didn't want to tell us," added Ulrich. "He said he wanted to confirm it first."

"Okay, I guess that makes sense," I said. I reached a hand for my French toast and placed the slice of bread into my mouth. The taste was heavenly.

"Hey, Lan, are you going to eat all of that?," Odd asked, pointing to my overly packed tray.

I defensively pulled my tray closer to me and answered with a gruff "yup." Ulrich snickered. "Looks like you're the not only one with an elephant's appetite, Odd."

"Very funny, Ulrich," the cat boy retorted. He turned to face me and asked, "oh, yeah, Lan, by the way, where's Hub?" I was taken aback at how randomly the question was asked and I realized that I'd neglected to mention the fate of my brother.

"Um. . . well. . .," I said awkwardly, not knowing how to phrase my answer. Luckily, Ulrich came to my aid.

"Let me guess, Sissi decided to interview him, didn't she?," he said. I nodded.

"How did you know that?," I asked him.

The samurai groaned. "Because she's been nagging me for an interview all week," he grumbled.

I blinked my eyes in disbelief.

"You're not. . .serious, are you?," I said shakily, giving a nervous laugh. Ulrich then treated me to one of his best I'd-rather-not-talk-about-it looks before he replied, in a stern, angry tone, "don't ask."

"Um. . .okay. . .I won't," I assured him. Then, I turned my attention back to my heavenly French Toast and I hardly ate two bites before Jeremy's lap top began emitting the most horrible beeping sounds I'd ever heard.

"XANA attack," he said simply, as if directing a fire drill. "Tell the others to head for the factory." We all groaned. A XANA attack in the morning, straight off the bat. Great way to start the day.

Nothing like a little life-risking danger to get you out of bed.

**Well, that's it for chapter 14. Tell me, what do you think? This is my first time writing from Lan's perspective and I really liked how it came out. Do you think I should post more chapters like this? If so, whose POV would you want to see narrated? PM me or leave your response in the comments.**

**All opinions, ideas, reviews, and constructive critism ** **are appreciated and accepted!**


	15. Chapter 15

**Hi, guys! Sorry I took so long to update, but I have a good excuse. BOTH of my computers broke down at the same time (with all my Code: Desperate data on it. . .good thing I had a back-up USB drive, though. ) and I only got a new computer a few days ago. Revising the chapter was hard, and I decided to divide it into two parts, so I'm sorry if you all feel I'm leaving you on a cliff-hanger. **

**Also, in this chapter, I added a new character (and I based his charecter from the manga, not the game), and I want to hear what you guys think of him.**

**Anyway, without further ado, here's Chapter Fifteen!**

Chaud Blaze was hunched over his computer, typing furiously. His PET was positioned next to the computer and the netnavi stored inside of it got a full view of Chaud's fingers dancing across the keyboard.

"Chaud, sir," ProtoMan said.

Chaud did not look at him but grunted in response.  
"Is it really necessary to type this much?" ProtoMan asked.

"They said they wanted a full report about the copybot heist, so yes, it is necessary," replied the operator. ProtoMan sighed. "You've been at this for an hour, Chaud. I think the report is long enough."

Chaud was taken slightly aback at this. ProtoMan rarely offered his opinion. But, then again, what the navi said made sense. "I guess you're right," the dual-haired boy conceded. "Could you print it for me?"  
"Yes, sir," answered the navi, pressing the "PRINT" option.

The printer hummed to life, but then shuddered, and made a _ka-put! _sound. Chaud whacked it, but still the printer would not do as assigned. "Hunk of junk," he muttered angrily. Chaud sighed, knowing the device would have to be replaced, but then, unexpectedly, the printer roared with a shrill series of sounds, as if insulted by Chaud's attitude.

A gray liquid-like mass oozed out of the printer, forming a barely humanoid shape in the air. "What the—," Chaud began, but he never got to finish that sentence. The gray humanoid _thing_ lunged at him. Chaud instinctively flung his arms at it, but saw with horror that his hands harmlessly passed through the humanoid's body, as if it was a ghost.

And like a ghost, it contracted itself and flew into Chaud's ears. Chaud's face paled and he collapsed to the floor, much to ProtoMan's bewilderment.  
"Chaud? Chaud? What's going on?! What's happening?!," the navi exclaimed. A whole round of gagging sounds answered him, as if Chaud was being strangled. The dual-haired boy was now currently laying sideways, and he clenched his throat with both his hands. He thrashed and rolled from side to side, all with strangled grunts and coughs. His face was turning blue and his eyes were wide.

"Chaud! Chaud, what's going on?! CHAUD!" ProtoMan was shouting Chaud's name over and over again. He wanted to help, but wasn't sure how. He couldn't see his operator and therefore he couldn't diagnose the problem.

However, by a supreme stroke of luck, both Chaud and ProtoMan were not left in such a helpless state for long; Dr. Hikari had burst through the door and he immediately realized the gravity of the situation.

He went over to Chaud's side and began performing the chocking procedure; one hand on his chest and the other on his back. Dr. Hikari struggled to keep Chaud still and forced the boy to sit up. With the heel of his hand, the doctor delivered several sharp blows onto Chaud's back. With each whack, Chaud's coughing became more rapid, and on the fifth blow, the unexpected occurred. The gray specter exited Chaud's body, draining itself out of his ears, and flung itself onto a new unsuspecting victim: Dr. Hikari.

And this time, Dr. Hikari did not fall onto the floor with a coughing fit. Rather, his body flickered, as if holographic, and an eye-like symbol replaced his pupils.

D~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Favorite colors?"  
"Blue and green."  
"Favorite food?"  
"Um. . .curry."  
"Favorite toothpaste flavor?"  
"Toothpaste?"  
"Yes. Now answer the question."  
"Sissi, you sure your readers care about this?"  
"Yes! Now what is your favorite toothpaste flavor?"  
"Um. . .strawberry, I guess."

And so continued the interview. MegaMan wasn't sure how to respond to Sissi's questions, so he either made up answers, or said things he knew Lan would say. It felt awkward to lie, but that was better than the alternative of remaining silent. Sissi scribbled down his answers like a madman and MegaMan wondered how her notes would be legible.

"Sissi, are we done yet?," he asked.  
"Um. . .almost," she said. "We just have. . .uh. . .a little more. . ." And she pulled out another packet of questions. MegaMan groaned and rolled his eyes. His arms were folded and his back was leaning against his chair. The message was clear: _why did I agree to this?_

Luckily, he was spared from answering another question when Lan approached the table.  
"Lan, what do you want?," Sissi demanded. "We're busy right now."  
Her tone made Lan feel like she regarded him as an annoying child; but he didn't care.  
"I know that," he said angrily. "I just need to speak to Hub."

MegaMan immediately turned around when he heard Lan say his name and that was when he noticed Lan's peculiar expression. Two stern brown eyes narrowed onto his figure and Lan's eyebrows were scrunched together, the way they always did before a math test. A scowl replaced Lan's usual smile and under his sleeves, MegaMan noticed his brother's fists were clenched tightly. By reading Lan's body language, one could tell he was stressed about something.

And MegaMan knew there was only one other option as there was no math test scheduled for the week. He gained Lan's attention by tapping on his arm and mouthed a word. A single, four-lettered, two-syllabled word that made all the difference. _XANA?_

Lan nodded and MegaMan's eyes widened. Immediately, he stood up, his back facing Sissi.  
"Hub, where are you going?," Sissi demanded.  
"Lan just reminded me about something important I have to do," MegaMan replied.  
"And that would be?," growled Sissi.

"Um. . ." MegaMan was silent for a moment, thinking of possible answers; at least, until Lan broke in with the most unlikely answer the former navi had ever heard his brother say. "Hub needs to help me with. . .my math homework! It's. . .really important! So. . .  
uh. . .see ya!"

As if on cue, Lan seized his brother's wrist and tugged him in the direction towards the exit. Fortunately, MegaMan got the message and the twins immediately bolted for the door, leaving a partly baffled, partly infuriated Sissi in their wake.

L~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You know your day is going wrong when at least one of the following options occur:

A) Your printer breaks down

B) You've nearly been strangled by a ghost from the inside

C) And finally, you're now being choked to death by a mad scientist that has electricity crackling at his fingertips

All three had occurred to Chaud that day, and he knew things were going to go downhill just when choice "A" had transpired.

And then he knew his day was going to get even worse when Dr. Hikari had pounced on him, held him by the scruff of his neck, and now tried to both electrocute and choke him at the same time. Chaud wanted to scream, but Dr. Hikari's grip was like iron. He couldn't breathe. He could feel the electricity whirling in Dr. Hikari's fingers.

His brain went numb and the only thing he processed other than the fact he was about to be electrocuted was the frantic voice of ProtoMan screaming his name over and over and over again. ProtoMan's voice seemed to reverberate like an echo in Chaud's mind, and time itself seemed to slow down.

Electricity coated Dr. Hikari's hands and the symbol in his pupils seemed to glow with glee. But then, inexplicitly, a noise like a cannon sounded, and the scientist roared in pain. His body stiffened, flashing like a hologram, and his hands opened, releasing Chaud from their pincer-like grip. Chaud fell onto the floor, gasping for the much-needed breath.

"Guess I was a bit too hard on Yuichiro, eh?," piped up a childish voice.

Chaud feebly lifted his head and found two crimson eyes staring down at him.

"Sean?," the duel-haired boy rasped.  
"Yeah, it's me, Chaud," said Sean, extending his left hand. Chaud took it and pulled himself to his feet. Several hoarse coughs escaped his throat, as if Chaud's lungs had trouble serving their usual function.

Sean, taking note of this, immediately dealt several sharp blows to Chaud's back. "Thanks, Sean," Chaud croaked. His azure eyes traveled to the item held in Sean's other hand. The silver glimmer of a frying pan met his gaze. "Wait, did you just. . .?"  
"Yup," confirmed Sean, knowing what his friend was going to say. "I just hit Yuichiro on the head with a frying pan! So, are you gonna grab your PET or what?"  
Chaud had no response to that and quickly seized his PET from the table. On the screen, ProtoMan's tense expression softened, as if he was relieved to see his operator. "Are you alright, Chaud, sir?," the navi asked.  
"Yeah, I'm—"

However, before the dual-haired boy could finish his sentence, a ray of lightning traveled straight past his head and struck the nearby wall, crumbling it into a pile of debris. When Chaud and Sean both glanced at who threw the thunderbolt, they saw Dr. Hikari glaring at them and charging his electricity for another shot.

"I think this our cue to run," Sean muttered weakly. Another thunderbolt whisked right past him.

Sean gulped.  
"_Definitely _our cue to run."

E````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````

Everything was just peachy in the Mountain Sector.

Odd was cracking jokes, Ulrich was complaining about how horrible the puns were, Aelita was already down to 40 life-points (you can imagine Jeremy's reaction), and all this and more took place while the Lyoko Warriors were under fire from a whole army of XANA's monsters.

In this case, the said monster species was that of Bloks; six-sided cube-shaped baddies that had the ability to shoot fire rings and freeze their enemies in solid ice. Real fun!

Several lasers sailed past Odd's head and he decided to say yet another pun.

"You missed me, Blockhead!," he taunted. Ulrich sprinted past him, stabbed the nearest Blok in the XANA-emblem, dashed away while it disintegrated, and shouted at Odd, "are you trying to annoy them or us?"

"_Both!,_" Odd announced gleefully as he fired a fleet of arrows in succession. The monsters who were hit by the projectiles met with their unfortunate deaths. "Haha! Now tell me that wasn't great!," the cat boy gloated. Ulrich rolled his eyes.  
"That was great," he muttered sarcastically. The samurai turned around, only to see a Blok making its way towards himself and Odd.

The monster was just in shooting range, but, before it even had the chance to even fire a laser, a purple-colored slab of light hurled itself into the XANA-emblem on its face. The Blok exploded instantly. Standing a yard away was a blue navi with a cannon attached to its arm. "Nice shot, Hub!," congratulated Odd. He winked at Ulrich and said, "you know, we oughta be keeping score here. Hub's a great warrior. I mean—"

"ON YOUR RIGHT!," exclaimed Jeremy's and Lan's voices together. A trio of Bloks flanked by Krabes on either side approached the warriors. Like an army unit, all five monsters lined up in formation and commenced their laser-firing routine. Whereas Bloks themselves launched fire rings, the Krabes were the ones shooting laser blasts. But yet, either way their attacks were deadly.

"You guys handle the Krabes!," yelled Ulrich, sprinting ahead of his two allies. As the samurai ran, two clones appeared beside him. Together, the three Ulrichs said as one, "I'll get the Bloks!"  
"We read you loud and clear, colonel!," Odd shouted back.

Like a cat, Odd went on all fours and clomped his way up to one of the Krabes. MegaMan personally thought this was an extremely strange method of walking and decided to just concentrate on the battle. In the manner of an expert, MegaMan carefully aimed his arm-cannon at the Krabe on the right-hand side. He fired several blasts from his buster, but the Krabe backed up, evading the shots.

MegaMan gritted his teeth. "Lan, a little help here would—"  
A rainbow-colored Custom Sword suddenly downloaded and replaced his arm.  
MegaMan gave a nervous laugh. "You know what, never mind."

K``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````

A thunderbolt sailed straight over Sean's head.  
"Hey, doc!," Sean yelled at Dr. Hikari. "We're not in the mood to eat voltage, so lay off the thunderbolts, will ya?"  
Another ray of lightning whisked right past him.  
"I think that's a no," Sean said meekly.  
"Geez," Chaud said sarcastically. _"Ya think?"_  
They kept on running.

Dr. Hikari was chasing after them, electricity crackling at his fingers, and the symbol in his eyes flashing with glee. He fired thunderbolts like a madman and Sean was under the impression that killing them wasn't the only thing he wanted. Something told Sean that Yuichiro was also in the mood for blowing up the place.

"Plan?," Sean huffed.  
"The door!," rasped Chaud, pointing. To the left side were twin titanium doors built like shutters, four inches of overlapping iron layers. It didn't guarantee the boys' safety, but it was a good chance.

Sean dashed ahead of Chaud, and, diverting his route to the left side, ran in front of the doors. Quickly, he jabbed several buttons on the door's control pad and the iron shutters rattled open; they spread apart and retracted into the adjacent walls. Sean ran inside the newly-accessible room, only to be followed by not just a fatigued Chaud Blaze but also a fleet of lightning bolts.

Swiftly, before the half-crazed Dr. Hikari could follow them in, Sean slammed his hand onto the inner command panel and the doors steeled shut just as Chaud ran into the room.

"Thanks, Sean," Chaud said. Sean winked at him.

"Don't mention it. Yuichiro ain't comin' in here any time soon!," Sean proclaimed happily. He made a funny face at the door and accompanied the expression with several sound effects. Chaud rolled his eyes.  
"Sean, don't provoke him," he advised. The gray-haired boy held up three fingers.  
"Whatever," he said dismissively.

His voice then switched to a more solemn tone.  
"How did he get like that, anyway?"  
Chaud considered the question. He closed his eyes, struggling to recall that chaotic episode. It all happened so fast.  
"I'm not sure," he said finally.  
"Really?," asked Sean. "You mean Yuichiro just decided to strangle you out of his own free will? I mean you ARE a jerk sometimes, but sill. . ."  
"_Look_," said Chaud, growing annoyed. "I hardly remember what happened. All I remember is getting attacked by this ghost—"  
"Ghost?," Sean cut in.  
"Whatever. I don't know what it was, but it sure looked like a ghost." Chaud's eye twitched, as if the notion made him nervous; however, his tone remained firm. "And whatever that _thing _ was, it just attacked me, and then the next thing I know Dr. Hikari tries to kill me. And then that's when I noticed something weird."  
"Weird?," echoed Sean. "In what way?"

Chaud coughed. "When he tried to strangle me, he held me up at eye level. And that's when I noticed something weird about his eyes. There was this. . .this symbol." The dual-haired boy gave an uncomfortable pause, before he continued, "and that's when I recognized it to be the same symbol _those_ viruses had when ProtoMan fought them several nights ago."  
Sean's stance straightened and his eyes bulged. "You. . .you're kidding."  
"We don't _kid,_" snapped ProtoMan's voice from Chaud's PET. "I can access the files if you want."  
"Please do," Sean said. Chaud withdrew his PET from his pocket and saw the screen was already scanning the recent data. Finally, the searching process came to a stop when the picture of a four-legged, spider-like virus popped up.  
"See this symbol?," Chaud said, pointing to the black eye-like emblem on the creature's head. "That's the exact same symbol Dr. Hikari had in his eyes."  
"_No way," _breathed Sean.  
"It's true," Chaud confirmed. "And that's why I think those viruses and whatever happened to Dr. Hikari are connected somehow."  
"Whoa," said Sean. "That's a pretty big accusation right there."  
"Yeah, but it makes sense," ProtoMan pointed out.  
"So now what?," asked Sean. "I mean, if Yuichiro is being somehow controlled by a virus, what are we supposed to do? Wait for a miracle?"  
"I don't know," admitted Chaud. "But I think we should—"

The dual-haired boy never got to finish that sentence. Suddenly, the iron shutters busted down, and a very angry Yuichiro Hikari stood behind it, electricity spiraling around his hands. "A miracle would come in handy right now," Sean muttered as Yuichiro started blasting thunderbolts.

I````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````

Charging head-on at the enemy is _never _ a good idea.

And that's exactly what MegaMan did.

Custom Sword at the ready, he lunged at the Krabe and gave a graceful leap into the air. A fluid flip together with a skyward slash, and the Krabe was fish food. Deleted, as if it hadn't even existed.

But that was merely the easy part.

"MegaMan, behind you!," warned Lan's voice. However, the navi reacted seconds too late. His brain processed there was a Blok behind him, but when he tried to shoot it with his buster, that's where the complications began.

The Blok retaliated with a beam of ice; and, while it not only negated the buster shots, the beam hit MegaMan straight under his crest. Ice broke out across his body and a gleaming frozen statue was left in his place.

O``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````

Lan watched that scene in slow motion.

And his reaction: horrified.

Displayed on his PET screen was the image of MegaMan frozen in mid-shot. Above the ice-covered navi was the amount of Life Points he had left: 70.

It wasn't the best number, but it did provide some flexibility.

Fumbling through his pockets, Lan searched for the correct battle-chip to transfer to his navi. The options were scarce, as MegaMan was frozen, but an idea popped into Lan's head. He withdrew a green battle-chip with the picture of an orange flame. Fire Soul.

Quickly, he flung the desired chip into his PET and watched as the Fire Soul downloaded.

Nothing happened.

With the exception of MegaMan's Life Points taking a severe drop from 70 to 30.

"_What?!," _hissed Lan when MegaMan began flashing red as his Life Point meter drained. "Why?!"  
"Lan, what did you do?!," demanded Jeremy. His voice was higher pitched, the way it did when he was agitated.  
"I. . .I. . .just tried. . .!" Lan's voice faltered, struggling to put together a complete sentence.  
Jeremy waved aside the question. "Forget about it for now," he said blandly. "Just remind me to ask you about this once this whole thing blows over."

And with that, the computer genius turned his eyes back into the holomap, just in time to see Aelita's yellow triangle making its way to the Tower. She was still had a ways to go, but the conditions seemed promising. Most notable of all, there were no red dots in the surrounding area, signifying the defeat of XANA's monsters. But then, suddenly the signature of an unfamiliar foe appeared directly in front of her.

Jeremy tried to warn her, but already Aelita's health bar fell to 10 Life Points.

**So that's that! What did you think of Sean? He really gets so little love and I thought he'd do well in the story. Leave your opinion of Sean in the comments.**


	16. Chapter 16

**Sorry I took a bit long to update, but I ended up editing this chapter at least five times! And no, I'm not kidding. First, my computer shut down and my initial document was deleted, forcing me to rewrite the chapter all over again. Then, i didn't like the way it came out and I redid it. Then, my editior said the chapter was laggy and told me to redo it. Finally when I did the draft over again a fourth time, I wasn't satisfied and I rewrote it. Finally, when the fifth draft was done, my editor graded it as acceptable and said it was ready to be posted. **

**Ranting put aside, I am not doing this chapter again and if you don't think it's good, please hold your silence. This chapter gave me the most pain by far and after this, the story really starts picking up the pace. **

**Anyway, without further ado, I give you Chapter 16, the chapter I redid 5 times!**

At first glance, the time seemed perfect to run to the Activated Tower. Sure, maybe Yumi had already been de-virtualized and MegaMan was frozen solid, but, on the plus side, all the monsters were gone. The opportunity for perfection was slim, but the current circumstances were as good as they came. No interference from monsters was a good bargain and Aelita decided to take advantage of that.

She never dreamed that XANA would have decided to fling a Darkloid in her path.

Yet there he was, standing right in front of her. Or rather, floating, as his feet were several inches above the ground.

He was humanoid, with a mane of spikey golden hair surrounding his face. His skin was pale as a sheet, with the exception of his chest, which was colored with navy. From the knees and down, gold-plated boots covered his legs. Attached to the back of his head was a whip-like yellow strand of leather with a star-shaped piece at the end. Finally, on his forehead was a black emblem with a star on it.

In the manner of a gentleman, the darkloid gave a poised bow before introducing himself to be StarMan. Then, ten seconds later, he decided to show Aelita his aggressive side and began hurling star-shaped projectiles from his hands.

Aelita gave an attempt to dodge, but an unexpected blast hit her in the stomach. She collapsed, knowing full well that blast could easily have taken out at least half her Life Points.

Luckily, the two remaining Lyoko warriors rushed to her rescue. Several quick Laser Arrows from Odd was enough to divert StarMan's attention. The darkloid spun around, only to be damaged by more Laser Arrows. "_Cheaters!," _StarMan hollered as his hands glowed with a pale hue. Behind him, a black void opened and fleets of huge, five-pointed glimmering gold stars emerged from it. Those enormous entities of supernova blasted themselves towards at the two Lyoko warriors.

However, Odd and Ulrich were ready. Odd hopped on his newly-materialized over-board, and flew straight over the deadly projectiles. Ulrich, on the other hand, sprinted under the star trail and pulled out his twin katanas. But yet, StarMan reacted as if he had fully expected them to react the way they did. He smirked, and his black eyes twinkled with glee.

Around him, eight golden star-shaped arrows materialized. With a fling of his hand, StarMan sent these arrows hurtling at his foes. These arrows traveled so swiftly, the Lyoko Warriors had to depend on immediate instinct to defend themselves. Ulrich fortunately was able to parry the four projectiles launched at him with his blades, but Odd wasn't so lucky. The first arrow pierced his shield and the second and third arrows did so much damage, he was de-virtualized before the fourth arrow even hit him.

"_Odd!"_ Ulrich shouted as he saw his friend's form fade into pixels.  
"Oh, that's his name?," asked StarMan. "Weird name."  
Ulrich made absolutely no comment to that. He could've agreed with the darkloid's opinion, but it was hard to tell. "Wait, I'm supposed to fight you, right?," StarMan said. "Um. . .don't take this offensively, but I'm supposed to kill you. Sorry about that, but orders are orders. Just don't think too badly of me."

With a flick of his wrist, StarMan revived the faded star trail and summoned more giant, five-pointed projectiles to hurl at Ulrich. Ulrich reacted instinctively and quickly dashed away as StarMan's body became illuminated with light. Star-shaped meteors began crashing behind the samurai as he ran. He dodged them with barely a millisecond to spare, but not even Ulrich's agility could help him completely evade the deadly blows. Eventually the projectiles found their mark and Ulrich's Life Point bar fell to zero upon impact.

With two Lyoko Warriors down, only Aelita was left. She was currently making her final sprint towards the Activated Tower, but StarMan still had ample time to strike her.

And that he did.

The rims of his hands glowed gold and the black hole behind him swelled and grew. He felt power coursing through his arms, but yet he was reluctant to use that force.

Though he never considered a code of ethics, StarMan was against the idea of fighting a girl. It just didn't feel right. Threatening Aelita with star arrows was one thing, but actually deleting her. . .that was quite another.

Yet, at the same time, StarMan was under strict orders. He was told he could **_not _**let the pink female enter the Red Tower under any circumstances. Force was necessary to ensure that, and now wasn't the time to be concentrating on morals.

Keeping that goal in mind, StarMan willed the golden energy enveloping him to form another round of arrows. But then, before he could even launch a single projectile, StarMan suddenly heard the sound of a cannon firing and a sharp pain stung his shoulder. He spun around, only to see MegaMan preparing another shot.

"_Where in blue blazes did you come from?!_," shouted the darkloid in indignation.  
"I would be asking you the same thing, twinkle toes," MegaMan countered.  
StarMan released a short laugh. "Always the comedian, aren't you?," he mused. "Sorry to tell you this, but I never liked your puns."  
"I wasn't trying to be funny," MegaMan retorted.  
"Whatever," StarMan said. "So, we're supposed to fight? Hope you came _ prepared_, Mega." To put more emphasis on that statement, StarMan lifted his pale arms into the air, and his star arrows made a lurch towards MegaMan. The navi took a defensive stance, buster raised upwards and one leg ahead of the other.  
"Hub!," warned Jeremy's voice. "Don't fight him! You only have 30 Life Points left! One hit and it's game over!"  
"Jeremy, I know that," MegaMan said in a lower tone. "I'm just stalling so Aelita can reach the Tower. Lan can just insert a recovery chip and I'll be okay."  
The computer genius was not appeased. "But—!"  
"Lan, you know what to do," MegaMan cut in, just as a navy mask closed around his mouth and nose. Lan understood the message; quickly, he inserted a recovery chip into the PET. MegaMan's health regenerated instantly.

And not a moment too soon. Just as MegaMan glanced upwards, he saw a whole barrage of golden arrows hurtling down at him. The navi performed a slick dodge by jumping sideways, which caused the arrows to collide with the place he was once standing. StarMan clenched his fists in fury and readied another round.

"_Mega-booster!," _said Lan's voice over the speakers. StarMan look baffled by that command, but MegaMan knew all too well what it meant. The navi braced himself as he felt the chip activating.

The two lower spikes on his jet pack expanded and ignited, similar to the manner of a rocket. MegaMan jetted into the air and swiftly glided backwards. StarMan's arrows crashed ahead of him, and leveled the ground into a pile of debris.  
"Your aim hasn't gotten any better," MegaMan said dismissively. StarMan gritted his teeth. "They'd hit you if you didn't keep dodging them!," he half-shouted, hands brimming with golden energy.  
"And I'd rather not get hit, so, sorry if I keep dodging them," MegaMan said, jetpacks igniting with a flare of fiery energy. The navi zoomed back into action just as StarMan began launching arrows at him. And the term _zooming_ was quite a literal one, as MegaMan was using his upgraded jetpack to his advantage. He was now currently performing a whole air show of zigzags and loop-to–loops to prevent StarMan from getting a lock-on at him. And, to MegaMan's joy, the strategy was working with the best of success; golden arrows skittered past him, collided with nearby landscape, and vaporized anything around the arena. "_Stop moving!" _StarMan snapped angrily, hurling another round of star-shaped projectiles at the navi.

The loop-to-loop maneuver was MegaMan's answer for evasion, but this time, his luck ran out. An undetected arrow zapped his shoulder, breaking his concentration and interrupting his defensive rhythm. More arrows followed the first, and damage became collective in MegaMan's Life Point bar.

He and Lan retaliated with more battle-chips, while StarMan responded to that with attacks of his own. Trading blows became common in the fight, and one question remained solid in MegaMan's mind:

_Would this fight ever end?_

The answer was already there, as Aelita had arrived at the Activated Tower.

**O``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````**

Aelita entered the Red Tower and, with a graceful, feminine gait, she approached the white center of the Tower's XANA-emblem platform. The outer rings of the symbol glowed white was she stepped past them, and she only stopped walking when she was directly on the center. A clear, bright hue enveloped her body as an invisible force lifted her to the Tower's upper platform. Performing a quick back-flip as she levitated upwards, Aelita soon found herself on the top platform and again approached the center. She raised her arm and a rectangular interface popped up. She placed her palm on the plain screen, and the following word, in computerized letters appeared:

Aelita

The word disappeared and the subsequent statement replaced it:

Code Lyoko

**M````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````**

On Sean's list of _the worst ways to die_, being electrocuted to death by Yuichiro Hikari was currently holding first place. The reason was simple: it was happening right now.

Sean and Chaud were presently being levitated in mid-air and were being zapped by high-volt electric currents. The murderous glare in Yuichiro's eyes told them all too well he would not stop until life held no meaning to the two boys.

Sean wanted to scream, but the combined pressure of electricity and fear kept his voice clogged down his throat. No sound emerged from his mouth, as was the same case with Chaud. Both boys remained silent as electricity blinded their retinas, sending shockwaves through their bodies.

But yet, even when their limits had reached the brink, even when death seemed to be glaring at them in the eye, an unexpected twist occurred.

Suddenly, with an immense flash, all the electricity faded. Sean and Chaud fell straight onto the floor as a result of this, and, when they looked up at Yuichiro Hikari, they saw something even more baffling.

The scientist's body stiffened, and he fell face-first onto the hard tile ground. His form flickered like a hologram, and a gray, humanoid-like specter drained from his ears, fleeing into the nearest outlet.

"Whoa," said Sean. "You _weren't _ kidding about the ghost part, Chaud."

**E```````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````**

With Aelita's deactivation of XANA's Tower, the entire fight seemed to slide away.

StarMan had retreated, which was a lucky thing as MegaMan had taken a large amount of damage. He had barely any Life Points to spare, and the navi was relieved when Jeremy had entered the Code: Earth; now, he didn't have to worry about his digital status.

At least, so he thought. Upon returning to the computer room, MegaMan became aware that Jeremy required him to stay at the factory. The technical genius, being vague in his explanation, said that he had needed to do a thorough scan of MegaMan's virtual avatar. Lan was also obligated to stay late, though MegaMan did not comprehend the reason for that.

Only when MegaMan had returned to Lyoko and reached a Blue Tower did Jeremy relate the purpose of his request. Apparently, MegaMan had been taking recoils when Lan inserted a certain battle-chip into the PET. Desiring to find the root of the problem, Jeremy required a full-length scan in order to diagnose and cure this setback.

And full-length scans meant MegaMan wasn't coming back to the real world anytime soon.


	17. Chapter 17

**ANNOUNCEMENT TIME!**

**To all the Sean Obihero fans: Never fear! Sean has a solid role in the Code: Desperate story! You'll all be seeing him throughout the chapters!**

**To all those with DeviantART accounts or those who enjoy visiting the website: I have an account on DeviantART now! My username is PearlHikari (as a compound word).**

**To all those who care: On my initial word document, Code: Desperate is now 105 pages long and is still in production as we speak!**

**And now...on with the story!**

"_What?"_ hissed Ulrich.

"It's true," confirmed Aelita. "I was working with Jeremy last night, and he explained everything to me. Unless you want him to explain the technical issues, I'd recommend not bringing this up to him."

"And he didn't tell us about this?," demanded Yumi. "He couldn't find time out of busy schedule to mention it?"

"Jeremy wanted to; but XANA attacked first," retorted Aelita. " We only found out about this last night."

"Whoa," said Odd. "Who'd ever thought that. . .that this would ever happen. . ."

"It was bound to," Aelita said sadly. "With all the excess virtualizations and new replicas, I'm not surprised. The super-computer's power is so spread out that a return to the past is nearly _impossible._"

"And that's bad," added Yumi. "Now what? If someone discovers the factory, we can't erase their memory! We're at a big risk here, guys."

"No kidding," agreed Ulrich. "What was that XANA attack, anyway? XANA didn't attack us. If he attacked someplace else. . ."

"Exactly," whispered Aelita. "If XANA attacked someplace else, that means he wants others to find out about the factory. He's taking advantage of the fact that we can't use the return to the past now."

"This is bad," Yumi repeated.

The others all nodded gravely. Whispering at low-pitched tones, the Lyoko Warriors stared miserably at the principal's door, awaiting their punishment for disappearing so suddenly and missing class in the process.

Sissi, who had also gotten herself in trouble, sat on the next bench, struggling to hear the group's conversation, but only catching fragments of pointless sentences. She heard their solemn voices, though she could not comprehend what the circumstances were. She caught Jeremy's name a couple of times, which only increased her suspicions as Jeremy was not with his gang. In fact, Hub and Lan were absent as well, giving Sissi even more reasons for accusing the group of illegal activity.

Eventually, as the conversation went on and on, Sissi was no longer able to contain herself: "So, where's the rest of your little gang? Out doing some extra-credit papers?"  
She said the sentence with disdain, as if she knew that was not a likely situation.

"None of your business, Sissi," Ulrich growled.

Sissi's mouth curled like a cobra's. The request of privacy; a perfect sign of illegal activity.  
"Oh, it's my business, all right," Sissi said threateningly. "If they're doing some evil experiments or something, my father ought to know."

"Evil experiments?," Ulrich said musingly. "You've been watching too many sci-fi movies."

"Do you think I'm stupid?!," Sissi retaliated angrily. "You—Jeremy—everyone in your little group has been doing weird things for years now! You're all up to something!"

"Well, you know the definition of weird, so why don't you tell us," Odd cut in.

Sissi shot him a death glare. "I'll find out what you're all doing," she vowed. "All your secrets! And I'll make sure my father knows all about it!"

"You said _'all' _three times," Aelita pointed out. "If you're so smart, why don't you look up a dictionary and find synonyms for that word?"

The others _all _laughed, which caused Sissi to become so aggravated she stomped her foot on the floor, in perfect imitation of a child. She barely managed to rasp a retort before Aelita's cell phone began whirling with noise.

Aelita withdrew it from her pocket and held the mobile against her ear. "Hello?"

Jeremy's voice answered her, and he sounded anxious. "Aelita, it's exactly as I thought. I need the data we worked on last night. I loaded it onto a CD. It's in my room. Can you get it?"

Aelita noted the computer genius was talking with short, brief sentences, a sure sign he wanted the task to be done quickly.  
"Jeremy," she whispered quietly, so that Sissi wouldn't hear. "We were caught on the way upstairs. We're in the principal's office right now. Are you _sure_ you need the CD?"

"It's as clear as crystal, Aelita," Jeremy retorted. "I'm looking at the screen right now and I see the evidence right in front of me. I need the CD A.S.A.P."

"Fine," said Aelita. "I'll see what I can do."

With that, the pink-haired girl shut off her mobile and rose her voice to a more audible tone.  
"Ms. Nichole!," she called to the principal's secretary. Nichole grunted.  
"I have a headache," Aelita said. "Can I go ask Yolanda for some aspirin?"

"Yeah," Nichole mumbled, eyes still focused on her computer.

"Thanks!," Aelita said loudly.

The other Lyoko Warriors looked baffled, but comprehension quickly struck them when Aelita mouthed the word _factory._

**A````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````**

"Jeremy, what exactly is wrong with me?," asked MegaMan, tapping his foot against the Tower's platform. He sometimes did that when nervous.

"I've analyzed your data and I found something bad," Jeremy explained.

MegaMan lifted his face upwards, as if trying to read a high-up billboard.  
"That's not very specific," the navi pointed out. "I know _something's _wrong with me, but I don't know _what _it is."

Jeremy hesitated for a moment, as if he didn't know where to begin. "There. . .there's some sort of. . . gap in your programming, like a missing chunk of data. And—"

"What?!," MegaMan intervened. "A gap? What do you mean? What caused it?"

"Let me finish and I'll tell you!," Jeremy snapped, temper bordering on the danger zone. "I suspected something like this ever since you took that recoil on the Ice Replica, when Lan first tried activating what he calls 'Double Soul'. You lost 40 Life Points without being hit. Then, the second time, here, during the most recent XANA attack, you took another recoil of 40 Life Points, again for no apparent reason. Therefore, I have scanned your data and I realized that there is a hole. . .of sorts in your programming. I ran another analysis and I have reason to believe that your encounter with the Scyphozoa caused this _hole_."  
Jeremy paused, and let that revelation sink in. It was easy to see Lan was already lost after the word _recoil; _his eyes were dizzy and his expression was molded into one of confusion.

However, MegaMan completely understood what Jeremy had said; perhaps it was because he was programmed to understand such speech, or the lecture strongly pertained to him. Either way, MegaMan had only one question:  
"The Syphozoa? You mean that squid thing?"

"Exactly," confirmed Jeremy. "Therefore, I've called Aelita and asked her to bring something to. . .'cover up' the hole. It's been a code that we've been working on in accordance to your back-up data."

Ah, back-ups. That was more of Lan's language. "What's it do?," Lan inquired.

Jeremy cleared his throat. Reciting a bunch of facts was not easy for his voice box to handle. Maybe it was time he started buying cough drops. "Basically, the code will allow MegaMan to—"

**Clang.** Cue the scrapping of metal from the elevator, and into the factory walked Aelita, gripping Jeremy's disc in her hand.

"Well, at least we can install it now," Jeremy muttered, taking the disc from Aelita.

"Whoa, wait a second!," Lan protested as Jeremy was about to insert the CD into the super-computer. "I have to know what it does before I let you plug it into MegaMan!"

Jeremy was taken aback, but he understood where Lan was coming from; the Hikari didn't know what the code was for, and he wouldn't allow Jeremy to install something foreign into MegaMan unless he knew what it did. Thankfully, the computer genius and Aelita both had an explanation at the ready. However, Jeremy's explanation soon gave Lan a severe case of perplexity as it included too many technical terms. Luckily, Aelita had the ability to put Jeremy's lecture into simpler words.

"In brief, this code includes all the scanner data," Aelita explained. "And it will allow MegaMan to be de-virtualized if he loses all his life points. Before, he had to use the Code: Earth to be sent back to Earth, but now he can just be safely de-virtualized like without need of a Tower."

"Wow," remarked Lan. "That's convenient."

Jeremy shifted the position in his seat. "However," he said darkly. "That's all we really know about the code. We don't know how it will affect MegaMan's combat capabilities nor his human form."

Lan's foot did a small tap dance against the floor. Fidgeting; a sure sign that he felt nervous about what Jeremy had said. MegaMan gave his operator a reassuring smile, but Lan's expression did not relax.

After somewhat of an awkward silence, Jeremy asked Lan for the vital decision:  
"Are you ready to install the code?"

Lan glanced down at his PET, mouthing the question to his brother. MegaMan nodded.  
"Yes, Jeremy," Lan said. "I—we—we're ready."

**E`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````**

"You mean to tell me that this is all _true_?!"

Such was the reaction of Dr. Famous when Chaud and Sean had related the current events of SciLab. The Australian professor could not believe the fable the children had expounded upon, especially since the big bad monster was Yuichiro Hikari.

"It's all true," confirmed Chaud. "How else to explain the fact that Dr. Hikari is in the infirmary?"

"But a _ghost?_," breathed Famous. "A _ghost _failing to possess you and then forcing Yuichiro to kill you? Ridiculous!"

"It really happened," insisted Chaud. "Doctor, you know I don't joke about these things. You have to believe me! Something happened and we don't know what."

Famous considered this. Research; always appealing to scientists.  
"Prove it then," the doctor said. "Give me some solid proof, and I'll alert the other net-savors."

Chaud swallowed a gulp. He had absolutely no proof; it was his word against common logic. After all, who would believe a story about a thunderbolt-hurling professor and a disappearing electro-magnetic ghost?

However, Sean came to rescue, and for once in his life, Chaud actually felt appreciation for the gray-haired prodigy.  
"Yeah, sure we can prove it!," Sean announced, as if the whole world was meant to hear it. Famous eyed him with an interested look, urging the boy to continue. Sean, without any hint of embarrassment, shoved his lap top into the doctor's face. "Here's the footage! Straight from the SciLab computers!"

Famous felt his mouth drop open. "How did you—"  
"It was easy!," Sean cut in. "Hacking SciLab computers are a piece of cake! Are you gonna watch the video or what?"

Famous did not respond and clicked the triangular play button. A whole fleet of footage met his gaze, and when he was finished watching the playback, he regarded Chaud and Sean with a different outlook on their story. "Inform the other net-savors immediately," Famous commanded. "This is serious."

**L`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````**

A meeting was scheduled in SciLab, and, explaining that he had evidence of UVA (unknown virus activity), Famous played the footage Sean had provided. After the video had been shown, there was a heavy conversation amongst the net-savors. Some discussions were done with hushed whispers while others were with clear, audible statements of distress; however, it was all on the same topic—the video footage.

It took several angry yells from Famous to quiet everyone down.

"Ok, everyone!," Famous announced, deliberately selecting a loud, ear-catching tone.  
"We have just seen an effect of UVA, and what it did to Dr. Hikari. As Sean Obihero has pointed out— " Famous inclined his hand towards where Sean was sitting—"this virus could have the same effect on other humans. Therefore we will take defensive action _immediately._"  
The stress on that last word greatly caught the net-savors' attention, and their expressions urged Famous to continue. Famous, for an additional dramatic effect, cleared his throat. "Our first action will be to figure out the events behind the recent disappearance of Yuichiro's son, Lan Hikari."  
Everyone's eyes widened, and the muttering amongst the crowd resumed.

"Chaud, is it really true?," whispered Maylu, a younger net-savor and fellow classmate of Lan. "Lan's really-?"  
She did not complete that sentence.

Chaud, who sat across from her, nodded grimly. "I was there in SciLab when this happened," he said solemnly, voice dropping at the end of the reply.  
Maylu did not press him for further information. She turned around, and Chaud could've sworn he heard a light, sniffled sob.

On Famous's side of things, he was now currently taking several cough drops, as his loud requests for quiet had not met with desired results. Luckily, Sean stopped in.

"Hey, guys!," the prodigy announced. "A meteor's gonna crash into SciLab! We're all gonna die if you don't GET with the PROGRAM!"

Several heads whipped around, and all the net-savors stared at Sean as if he, like the so-called meteor, were a being from space. "Good. That worked." Sean jabbed several buttons on his lap-top. "Ok, guys, there is no meteor. Basically, Famous is gonna tell you all your missions, but he can't say anything if he you guys keep talking! So, here's the deal: anybody—EXCEPT CHAUD—recognize this thing?"

As he said Chaud's name, Sean pounded the _enter_ key on his computer. Immediately, the projector hummed to life, and an image fizzled onto the screen. It was a bull's-eye symbol, with one line positioned on the top, and three smaller lines jetting out from the bottom.

Most of the net-savors rose their hands, though their expressions clearly stated confusion. _What's so important about a random emblem?_ , they seemed to be saying.

"Ok, where have you seen it?," asked Sean, his voice carrying a more serious, official quality.

Raika, a net-savor from Sharo, was the first to answer. "SearchMan found that symbol on several viruses," he recalled. "We suspected a connection, of course."  
Other net-savors nodded, and also made mention of their navis seeing the strange insignia. Even Tesla Magnus, the arrogant operator of MagnetMan, had a story to relate.

"Right. We've mostly seen that weird thing," Sean said, his voice suddenly switching to a darker, morbid tone. "But SciLab first discovered it when Lan disappeared. That symbol flashed on the computers when he was kidnapped. Now, we've been seeing viruses with symbols, and the whole Yuichiro incident."

He paused for a moment, just to catch the stunned looks on all the net-savors' faces. When he continued his speech, however, it still retained its ghostly, melancholy quality. "It's all connected. So far, Lan and his dad have been attacked. What's the connection between them other than the last name Hikari? Net-savor activity."

"Whoa there, kid," said Charlie Airstar, the operator of GyroMan and one of the more recent net-savors. "How do we know that it's because of the net-savor stuff? Maybe the Hikaris just have some deadly enemy out there somewhere."

Sean had an answer prepared for that question; he predicted that such an inquiry would rise. A grim look spread across his face. "Because Yuichiro, while possessed by the virus, tried to kill Chaud. This gives us more proof that the virus is against the net-savors."

A tense unease flowed through the room; all of a sudden, the net-savors didn't seem as confident as before. Awkward and nervous expressions replaced the faces of confusion.

"You. . .you're certain about this?" asked Maylu shakily. Sean was surprised that she, out of all the other net-savors, was the first to offer her opinion, but that didn't prevent him from giving Maylu the uninviting answer.

"Yup," Sean replied. "It's the only explanation that makes sense."

Another uncomfortable silence came and passed, as the room was soon abuzz with conversation once again. But then, amidst the hassled whispering, the door flew open, and into the room walked in a white-clad scientist.

"Dr. Famous," he said urgently. "We have. . .we have more data on the recent UVA. And Dr. Hikari. . .he wants to see you, Sean, and Chaud."

**I````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````**

"_HUB!"_

That angry voice roared with frustration, and MegaMan knew his troubles weren't over yet. Turning around, MegaMan came face-to-face with an infuriated Sissi Delmas.

"_Hub! _Where were you! I was looking for you ALL morning!," Sissi growled. She followed up with another fast threat. "You had _better _tell me before I tell my father!"

"Um. . .uh. . ." Tears of sweat dripped down MegaMan's cheeks.

He needed to come up with an answer, but the harsh buzzing sounds in his head wouldn't let him concentrate. Now, though navi-turned-humans usually don't hear sounds in their head, MegaMan unfortunately had to be faced with a painful exception. As a result of installing the Code: Desperate, Jeremy had explained that MegaMan might encounter headaches, migraine, and insomnia for the next few days (or weeks, if MegaMan's luck was really that bad.). Plus, as a bonus inconvenience, he would hear the ever annoying white noise in his head during that period of time.

"I was. . .I was. . ."  
A particularly unpleasant beep screeched through his brain, and MegaMan slapped both his hands around his head, holding his arms in a tense position. Elbows facing downward, MegaMan clenched the sides of his head with his palms; a moan involuntarily escaped his throat. "Arrghh!"

Sissi blinked her eyes in confusion.  
"Hub. . .?" Suddenly, her voice became filled with fear. "Oh! I knew it! Jeremy. . .he did experiments on you! Hub! Hub, what did Jeremy do?" Sissi's voice was frantic now, telling MegaMan all too well she was succumbing to her fantasies. He had to stop her before she alerted the whole school about some sort of alien-gene injection or other sci-fi horrors.

"Sissi, Jeremy did nothing to me," MegaMan reassured her, trying to sound soothing and painless as possible. "I. . .I just have. . ." Another screech rattled through his brain. MegaMan hid the flinch and completed the sentence. "I just have a really . . .bad headache. That's. . .all."

"Headache?" Sissi repeated. "I'll . . .let's go to the nurse's office! I'll get you some aspirin!"

MegaMan grimaced. Jeremy had explicitly said that aspirin would NOT help; MegaMan didn't want to learn the truth of that fact the hard way.

"No. . .no thanks," MegaMan said politely. "I think. . .I think I'll pass. I just need. . .to get some sleep. . ."

Sissi's look of concern deepened, and her voice dripped with sympathy. "Oh. Are you sure you don't need any help? I mean, I can—"

"No. I'm ok. Just. . .need. . .to get to my. . .room." MegaMan tried to force his voice to sound clear and confident, but difficulty tackled that effort in the form of a very shrill bleep echoing throughout his cerebrum.

Sissi, however, did not seem convinced of MegaMan's reassurances. But, whether or not she was willing to voice her concerns was another matter of discussion.

Before she could further protest, MegaMan lugged his pained body away from her, down the hall, and into the sweet sanctuary of his dorm room.

**T`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````**

"Yuichiro?"

That one word came out as a timid squeak from Dr. Famous's mouth. There, stretched across a hospital bed, was the limp form of Yuichiro Hikari. His eyes, that were an older version of his child's, were hanging half-open, as if Yuichiro were a rag doll waiting to be tossed in the trash.

"Yuichiro," Famous repeated again, stepping closer to his comrade.

Dr. Hikari stirred feebly. "F-Famous. . .what. . .what happened to me?"

"You don't remember anything?," piped up Sean, who stood on Famous's right side; Chaud, on the other hand, kept his distance from the bed, as if fearing Yuichiro would try to strangle him again.

It was hard to tell if Dr. Hikari was offended by this, and if he was insulted by Chaud's conduct, he didn't state that opinion verbally.

"I. . .I don't remember anything," Yuichiro said.

Famous rose an eyebrow, as if he still had some misgivings about Chaud's claims of being strangled by the feeble doctor. "Nothing?," Famous asked. "Nothing. . .at all?"

"No," Yuichiro confirmed. "All. . .all I remember is walking into the printer room. . .and seeing Chaud lying across the floor. After that, my. . .my head's a complete blank."

Both Sean and Chaud cringed slightly when Yuichiro gave that blurry, brief reminiscence of the confusing events. So he did remember something! Perhaps not the entire nine yards, but he did recall what had occurred before.

They wanted to reply, but Famous was one step ahead of them.

"I see," he said solemnly. "Thank you for your time, Yuichiro. We'll leave you to your rest now."  
Famous turned to Sean and Chaud. "Let's go; we'll discuss this later."

The two boys complied without protest, turning around and departing towards the hallway. As Famous, the last to leave the room, approached the door's frame, he heard Yuichiro call out to him.

"Famous," Dr. Hikari said. "Am I. . .am I going insane?"

Famous's hand twitched, as if he was hesitant to answer. "We'll see," he replied gently. "We'll see."

**A``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````**

The classic detective line of _He's telling the truth _was the first thing Famous said when he saw Sean and Chaud.  
"He really doesn'tremember anything," Famous confirmed.

"See?," Sean said to Chaud in his know-it-all rebuke voice. "I _told_ you Yuichiro didn't try to strangle you out of his own free will."

"I know that!," Chaud snapped.

"Then why didn't you say anything to Yuichiro back there?," Sean pointed out. "You could've said _something _to him."

"I. . .I. . .have my own reasons," Chaud countered. He hastened to change the subject. "Besides, that's not the point, is it, Dr. Famous?"

"_Just Famous_," the doctor said, putting a lot of emphasis on his name. "And yes, Chaud, you are correct. Yuichiro has no memory of the past events. We have to find out the cause behind the UVA. Any ideas?"

Sean's computer answered for him; it began emitting such immensely loud bleeping sounds that everyone in the near vicinity turned their heads in his direction.

"Ok, people! Show's over!" Sean shouted to the curious bystanders. "Computer's just buggy! Everyone just look somewhere else! Don't mind us highly confidential government agents working on high-tech stuff! BYE!"

Upon hearing that farfetched explanation from the gray-haired prodigy, the other outsiders turned away and ignored the strange group of net-savors; either they were wary of highly confidential government agents or they were convinced that Sean, Chaud and Dr. Famous were beings from another planet.

"I can't believe that actually worked," Chaud muttered.

"Well, it did," Sean whispered back. He hit his computer. "I need to put this thing on mute."

The machine buzzed, and a map of Japan popped up onto the screen. The map itself was dark blue, but there were a couple of sun-yellow dots flashing on several locations.

"What's this for?," asked Chaud and Dr. Famous in union. It was obvious from Sean's expression that he was delighted to provide an explanation. "Basically, this map marks possible places of future UVA," he said.

"Really?," inquired Famous, interested. "And you got all this info from _one _UVA?"

"Hardly," Sean replied. "There's been _other _UVA's that I'm looking into."

"More of them?," said Chaud. "You mean other UVA's that occurred outside of SciLab?"

"That's right!" confirmed Sean. "Here, take a look at this!"

A newspaper article sprang up on the computer. Being dated to about two weeks ago, the headline read: _Japanese Base Out of Commission. Police at loss for Explanation. _

The largest, eye-catching picture displayed an image of a dome-shaped machine nestled on top of a many-wired, multi-faced computer. Several smaller pictures webbed around the words of the article, each showing a snippet of baffled policemen and run down conveyor-belts.

"You don't have to read the article," Sean said. "They didn't write down what you need to know. Take a look at this."

Another file sprang up, and the words _restricted access _decorated the middle section.

"You hacked this, didn't you?" Famous said, heaving a sigh.

"I did," Sean admitted. "But this is important. Just take a look and you'll understand."

The prodigy clicked the file and an entire packet of data pooped onto the screen; a forbidden chip code stretched across the top.

"Dark Chips," Chaud muttered. "That factory was a Dark Chip workshop."  
"

Exactly," said Sean. "But _this_ is what you have to see."

He directed his arrow-shaped cursor onto the bottom of the restricted file. A whole paragraph became lined in huge, bold letters:

**Police have reason to believe that Darkloids were operating the factory. Stolen copy-bots and Dimensional Areas are further confirming these suspicions. Recent disappearances and the increase of UVA has forced the police to take higher measures, and investigations will be swift in the upcoming future. As for the mysterious vanishing of Dr. Regal-**

The article concluded there. A continuation to the next page was evident, and Chaud's eyes widened when he read the details. Regal had disappeared several days after Lan was kidnapped! It was no coincidence; Regal was somehow involved in Lan's disappearance—Chaud was certain of it.

"Why. . .why didn't anyone tell us about Regal before?!" Chaud exclaimed, pulse increasing.

"The government is higher up than the net-savors," Famous said with disdain. "They're too arrogant to admit that their prize prisoner, Dr. Regal, disappeared when they promised to keep him in check. And it was Lan who was responsible for Regal's arrest. It would look bad if they admitted to the public that Regal disappeared right after Lan was taken away." He patted Sean on the back. "They wouldn't have told us any of this until it was too late. Great work, Sean. We'll get to action right away."  
Sean grinned, proud of the compliment. "And we know where to start."

**A/N: That's all for now! Not that much progress, but I couldn't separate this into two chapters; it would look strange that way. Chapter 18 will be posted...the next time I get the chance! **


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter 18: MegaMan's Perspective**

Have you ever tried to concentrate on something, but no matter how hard you labored your brain refused to process the information? That's exactly what the next week felt like for me. Efforts to concentrate on schoolwork were quickly foiled by the ever-present nuisance tugging at my brain.

White noise vibrated through the chambers of my skull; screeching so powerful I was surprised that my head hadn't exploded from the mere pressure of it. I was sent to the nurse's office on multiple occasions, but the aspirin she gave me seemed to aggravate the noise rather than calming it.

Now, here I was again, twitching from the agonizing bleeping, pencil suspended over my test paper. Math was a complicated subject, but the constant screeching in my head made taking the exam so much harder. I smacked my pencil down in frustration. How did Jeremy expect me to pass school with continuous headaches? Had he ever tried _functioning _ like this?

Mrs. Mayors, the math teacher, walked over to my desk.

"Do you have a problem, Hub?" she asked kindly.

I shuffled in my seat. Mustering all the willpower I had, I forced myself to answer her with a complete sentence; that was another problem with hearing non-stop buzzing in your head—you were never able to finish a thought. "I. . .I just have a headache, ma'am," I answered politely. "Can. . .can I just step out for a moment?"

She sighed, as this wasn't the first time I had made such a request.  
"All right," she said. "But just for a few minutes."

Muttering my thanks, I stood up from my seat and headed towards the door. As I pulled the door open, I heard Jeremy's voice: "Ma'am, may I please also step out? I don't feel well."

That fibber; I knew for a fact Jeremy was just merely looking for an excuse to leave the room. I admit, it was unlike him to skip a math test, but I knew his motives: he just wanted to give me a whole lecture of reassurances that the pain in my head would eventually pass. He'd done it before, and his words made me far from being soothed.

I half-hoped Mrs. Mayors wouldn't allow him to leave the room, but, of course, she readily gave Jeremy her approval. After all, the genius had already finished the math test, so what reason did she have to withhold permission?

I wished something logical like that hadn't transpired. Following me into the hallway, Jeremy was the first to start the conversation. "Don't worry, Mega," he said reassuringly. "The pain isn't permanent."

I scowled at him, hoping he'd get the message: I was in no mood to talk to him, especially knowing the agony in my head was all his doing.

"Easy for you to say," I retorted. "Last time I checked, I was the one with the migraine."

"Perhaps," said Jeremy, preparing to counter. "But do you think you're the only one having to endure something like this?"

My face tightened, anger bordering on my expression. "I know a lot of people have endured migraine before! But did anyone have to endure. . .something like—" Another screech reverberated through my brain. I clenched my forehead stiffly, masking my scream in the final word. "THIS?"

"I have," Jeremy said quietly. I stared him, blinking my eyes in disbelief. "_What?"_

"It's true," he repeated, using the omniscient fact-of-the-day tone to provoke my curiosity. He didn't even wait for my response. "Once, I tried to artificially increase my intelligence by use of the super-computer. You know what I did?"

Ah; another grabbing-interest gimmick. I played along: "What did you do?"

"I inserted this device onto my head, and launched constant returns to the past. With each return trip, my brainpower increased, but my physical and mental health decreased. Eventually, my condition was so bad, I was rushed to the hospital," Jeremy explained.

He paused, a sign for me to comment about the story. "And what are you telling me this for?" I growled, mood still going downhill. He gave me his know-it-all grin.

"You feel grouchy most of the time, right?" he said, like a doctor diagnosing a patient's sickness.

I nodded. "Yeah, so?"

"You take out your temper on other people, and say things you later regret, don't you?"

I hesitated on that question. It was true; that inquiry brought back a bitter flashback of myself shouting at Lan and demanding to be left alone. That sad, puppy-dog look on his face was enough in itself to provoke guilt.

"Yes," I replied after a mild silence. "I've done that before."

"You get into more arguments with others, correct?" Jeremy asked further.

"Yes, yes, and yes," I confirmed. "Jeremy, why-?" A huge crash of white noise prevented the sentence from being completed. My fingers clenched around my temple.

"I was just double checking," Jeremy answered. "Because I went through the exact same thing while trying to increase my brainpower."

Hearing that, I was tempted to argue that such a thing _had _to be impossible, but both the breakout of screeching in my head and Jeremy's convincing voice encouraged me to just take it in without comment. "You knew this would happen, didn't you, Jeremy?" I challenged. "You knew what—"

"I had my suspicions," Jeremy answered simply, as if I were a mere child's math equation he was trying to solve. "I wasn't completely sure—"

"You weren't _sure_?" I half-shouted, pain stabbing my head and provoking rage. "You weren't _sure_ what plugging in the code would do to me, but you _decided _ to take the risk _anyway_?"

"It'll pass!" Jeremy retorted over my voice. "It's not permanent!"

"This is pointless!" I roared, causing Jeremy to stagger like I was a full-size lion. "This. . .this _stupid_ code is pointless! I never even needed it!"

"You will!" Jeremy countered. "You had a few lucky evasions, but eventually, you _will _ lose all your life points during a mission! And how do you think LAN would react if you were permanently de-virtualized, huh?!"

"L-leave Lan out of—" A loud, echoing screech tackled my brain. I flinched, but quickly regained my composure. "This! He has nothing to do with it!"

"He agreed," Jeremy pointed out. "He agreed into letting me plug in the code."

That was cruelty at its finest; I felt like those words stabbed me in heart. My chest throbbed as if Jeremy had bashed a spear into my ribs.

"Fine," I said scornfully. "Blame other people for the code. You just see yourself as too intelligent to admit it was your own fault."

A shadow of shame surfaced on Jeremy's face. His eyes narrowed. "H-Hub. . ."

"I don't care what you have to say!" I snapped. "It's all the same with you geniuses. You all think you're so invincible you can _never_ make a mistake!" A painful bleep exploded through my skull, preventing my insult from being completely verbalized.

"You're being unreasonable!" Jeremy insisted. "I can help you, make a program to ease the pain—"

"Keep your program," I growled. "Find another test subject to use it on."

The so-called computer genius looked offended, but I didn't care. I whisked straight past him and departed back into the classroom; my math test had been left blank, and filling it out while enduring migraine was a better choice than talking to the arrogant toe rag called Jeremy.

**H```````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````**

My head pulsed in agony. Waves of white noise crashed against my cerebrum as I stiffly scraped my pencil across the exam paper.

"Time's almost up," Mrs. Mayors chimed. "Only three minutes remain."

_Drat,_ I thought to myself. I was only on question six, and there were 25 questions altogether; I would never finish in time.  
I clenched my fist in frustration. The amount of pressure heaped above and inside my head was beyond painful. Regret of accepting Jeremy's Code: Desperate proposal attacked me in the form of another screech, and I cringed as Mrs. Mayors approached my desk.

"Time's up, Hub," she told me. "Please hand in your paper."

My body stiffened. "Please, ma'am, just a few more minutes," I begged, hoping she'd take pity on me.

"Sorry, Hub," she replied. "But you should have thought of that before you left the room. Now, hand in your exam."

Miserably, I gave her my near-empty test paper, knowing full well what my grade would be. Her expression of distaste clearly said she was marking my exam with a big red _F, _as a motivation to score better in the future.

The bell rang soon after I had given in my test, and I made haste to run out of the classroom. My head felt so sore, I just wanted to go to bed and let the pain harass me while I was asleep.

Luckily for me, it was the lunch period, and my absence in the mess hall would go unnoticed by the teachers. Smiling at the prospect of a well-deserved rest, I hustled down the hallway and into the sweet chambers of my room.

Ten minutes later, I was no longer smiling as the perpetual throbbing in my brain refused to stop. I buried my head into my pillow and released a long, extended moan, hoping—pleading—for the pain to cease.

The answer emerged in the form of another shrill bleep. I shivered as the echoes reverberated through my skull. If only this. . .this unendurable agony could just pass, even for a minute or two.

That thought sparked an idea into my head, and not even the loudest, echoing screech could extinguish or interrupt the notion. The answer had been under my nose this entire time, though it was a reckless and hasty move on my part. I knew it wasn't a good idea, but another pulse of white noise convinced me to bring the notion to fruition.

In desperation, I finally turned to the only salvation that could ever cure my non-ceasing pain: Lyoko.

**U````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````**

The virtualization process was easy. Despite the intense migraine, I was able to successfully pull off a quick transfer without any mistakes. Perhaps my second nature as a navi assisted in my computer skills, but the reason didn't matter to me.

All that my brain sensed was silence—a lack of white noise, which finally brought me to true contentment. I felt relaxed, happy that I had proceeded with my plan. Jeremy would hit the roof once he became aware of my decision, and ironically, that notion was humorous rather than intimidating.

It was impossible to tell the passage of time on Lyoko, but as the minutes stretched onward, I felt that I had spent so much time in the virtual realm that my absence would be noted as suspicious by the school. I would have to return to the real world soon, and oddly enough, I was loath to do so.

Returning to the human world would mean enduring more migraine again, which was something I did not desire. The Net was so blissful, so painless when compared to the human realm; my navi instincts told me this was the place I was meant to be.

"Having fun, aren't you?"

That mocking voice suddenly registered in my brain as my own. Whirling around, I came face-to-face with the insidious purple pallet- swap of myself:  
Dark MegaMan.

He was flanked by two Krabes, and his usual crimson eyes were gray, as if the tiny soul inside of him had been lying dormant for millennia. He had an amused expression on his face, the crooked smile that told me he had fun plans for the two of us. And Dark MegaMan's _fun plans_ usually included reducing me into raw data pixels before the end of the day.

"What do you want, Dark Mega?!" I roared, buster replacing my right arm.

He casually kicked a pebble aside, as used to this kind of encounter.  
"Oh, well, my name has changed," he said briskly. "You may call me Night MegaMan now."

"Without the _k_, I assume," I said scornfully.

He inclined his hand. "But, of course," he replied. "You suspect that I'm up to something, don't you? Well, stow your buster; I'm merely here to deliver a message."

"With the company you keep, I'd rather have it out ," I snarled, pointing my arm-cannon at the Krabes. They backed up, middle eye glowing red with laser charge.

"Now, now, Sam, Perry, Lord XANA doesn't want us to fight," Dark Mega—Night MegaMan—said reassuringly, as if the two monsters were precious pets. "We are here as messengers, and after we've delivered the message, you may spar all you want. Understand?"

The two Krabes—Sam and Perry, according to my copy—actually obeyed. The glimmering laser charge faded, signifying their readiness to submit to Night MegaMan's commands; I didn't like that, as it meant that they would also obey him if he ordered them to attack.

"Now to business," Night MegaMan said calmly. "Lord XANA has activated a Tower. . .ah, where was it? Oh, yes, at 50 degrees west." He pointed to my left side and my gaze met with a dark red tower.

So—Dark. . .Night MegaMan wasn't fibbing; I couldn't use the claim of falsehood to my defense.

Night MegaMan continued talking. "His attack this time around has trapped all of your friends in the school. No one can escape, and they are at the mercy of Lord XANA's Darkloids."

He paused, letting that statement sink in. My eyes narrowed. "No, you don't mean. . ."

My copy snickered, lifting his arms into the air and summoning a wide screen worthy of a movie theater. Initially, the image was blurry, with random splotches of color everywhere, but then the picture came into focus, revealing a large gigantic sphere of psychotic colors encircled around the dome-shaped campus of Kadic.

"A Dimensional Area," I breathed. "You set up a Dimensional Area around the school?!"

"It was easy," Night MegaMan laughed. "Activating a Tower to summon a Dimensional Area is much more convenient than using a satellite from space. And, here are the results!"

He flicked his wrist and the screen shuffled, displaying another snippet of the XANA attack, this time a shot inside of the school rather than on the exterior.  
I recoiled in horror. Every scene was the same; Darkloids were attacking students and the poor humans were shrieking in fear, the way innocent bystanders did during a horror movie.

Immediately, I knew this was no thrill film; this was happening for real. XANA did not have complete knowledge of the human psyche and he could never forge such spirited emotions on a movie cassette. The Dimensional Area was really there, and all those people were suffering because of its presence.

"You haven't seen the best part yet, Mega," Night MegaMan said with relish. "_This _was what Lord XANA intended for you to see."  
I wanted to clasp my eyes shut the moment he said that, but what the screen showed was too horrible for me to avoid.

There, ensnared by prickly, spiraling vines was my brother, Lan Hikari. His eyes were hanging half-open and his body was limp, as if his life was slowly draining away. His haunting face seemed to be expressing a message, a prayer: _help._

I felt rage surging through me. XANA having the audacity to attack the school was bad enough, but hurting my brother. . .that was just a sin.

"Why are you showing this to me?!" I growled. "What does XANA want?"

Night MegaMan laughed again, a sweet sound that resembled my reaction to one of Lan's jokes. That provoked even more anger.

"Lord XANA wishes to negotiate with you," Night MegaMan explained. "He has a value for human life. . ."

"Yeah, right!" I yelled. "If your _Lord XANA _valued human life, he'd call off his attack and try to help people rather than destroying them!"

"Perhaps," Night MegaMan mused. "But you do realize that Lord XANA has not killed anyone while possessing them? He does not value human life as much as you do, but you must admit he has not killed anyone."

He paused again, as if this were a conversation. He allowed his message to sink in, before resuming his part of the dialogue.

"Lord XANA has a proposition for you. He will spare the humans, call off his attack, and he'll even launch a return to the past if you obey your half of this deal."

"And what does my half include?" I asked warily, expecting the worst.  
Night Mega's eyes gleamed red, as if he were excited to say this part.

"Your service. You are required to give yourself up to the Scyphozoa. Once you have done that, I guarantee Lord XANA will spare the humans."

My body shivered-I had dreaded other possible requirements, but this one surpassed them all. Handing myself over to the Scyphozoa was an automatic transformation into a Darkloid; I would lose all my freedom and be trapped under the command of XANA.

I never wanted to agree to that, but then I glanced at the stiff form of Lan tied down by the thorny vines. There was no way the Lyoko Warriors could make it past the Darkloids, which meant they wouldn't be the ones deactivating the Tower. No; it had to be XANA who restrained the attack, and the only way he'd comply with that notion would be if I obeyed his demands.

There was no alternate path; I would lose my free choice anyway, no matter what I decided. If I refused to agree to XANA's proposition, he'd kill the Lyoko Warriors and my brother, not to mention all the other innocent students. Afterwards, I'd be the only one left to fight XANA, a sure plan set for failure. But, if I complied with XANA's idea. . .

I grimaced at the prospect; agreeing to servitude of XANA? Granted, I had fallen under foreign control before, and I was not eager to do so again. But yet, my freedom was already gone. My conscious would never allow me to sacrifice those humans for the sake of my own freedom. My choice had been already set, and its execution was about to be applied into real life.

"Fine, Night MegaMan. I agree to XANA's idea. Take me to the Scyphozoa, and let's get this over with."

**B`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````**

**A/N: And that's Chapter 18! A little bit of trivia, but does anyone know the episode Jeremy was referencing when he was talking to MegaMan at the beginning of the chapter? If anyone wants to answer that question (with the episode title and/or number), feel free to do so. **


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter 19: Night MegaMan's Perspective**

I couldn't believe what I had just heard. Lord XANA had sent me as a messenger, and while I held the position in high esteem, I thought the mission was due for failure. I was convinced that MegaMan would never agree to Lord XANA's conditions, especially at the price of becoming a darkloid. However, my brain processed what MegaMan had said, and though I was willing to deny it, my mind registered his voice and replayed his words:

_"Fine, Night MegaMan. I agree to XANA's idea. Take me to the Scyphozoa, and let's get this over with." _

My mouth hung open, wide enough to be a doorway.

Was MegaMan's dedication to human life overriding his will for freedom? Was Lord XANA—no, Dr. Regal—correct about their theory, of MegaMan's trait of loyalty far surpassing his other characteristics? If that was true, was loyalty the key that drove MegaMan to transcend above the doors of death, the thing that motivated him to survive? Pangs of jealousy hammered down my heart; if only I had such a powerful compelling force to live. My existence was solely for myself, with nothing to fall back on, no beloved to protect. . .I dismissed that thought.

Now was not the time to wallow in self-pity; Lord XANA would not approve of that. Now was the time for doing the next phase of the mission, escorting MegaMan to the Scyphozoa.

It was soon obvious that my Krabe comrades were no longer needed. MegaMan followed behind me without protest, lowering his gaze to the ground like a prisoner bound by heavy shackles. His devotion to Lan was what compelled him to abide by his decision, and I couldn't help but start a conversation with him. His expression said I was just mocking him by doing so, though I tried to keep my voice as mellow as possible.

"You know, Mega," I said calmly. "I really wanted to get to know you. I am a clone of your DNA, and I was curious about you. If we didn't have to fight each other, I could've done a whole interview, you know? That would've been interesting, right?"

MegaMan did not lift his eyes, and a morbid voice escaped his lips. "Will doing this truly save Lan?"

Ah, he was having reservations about the negotiation. Natural reaction, of course. "Lord XANA always keeps his promises," I reassured him. "Once you've given yourself up to the Scyphozoa, Lord XANA will spare your friends and erase their memories of the past events with the return to the past."

He flinched at the word _Scyphozoa, _(though I couldn't spell it for my life) which was a reaction I completely understood.

MegaMan had his data sapped by the squid-like monster before; he was not eager to be coiled by the Scyphozoa's tentacles again. His shoulders sagged, the prospect of turning into a darkloid greatly upsetting him.

Another reassurance was needed, and I didn't hesitate to provide him with one; I would have to get along with MegaMan once he joined our side, after all.

"Don't worry, Mega," I said soothingly. "You will find happiness in darkness; your life won't be as different as you assume."

An awkward squawk emerged from his throat, but the sound could not be mistaken; a cough masking a soft, bitter sob.  
"You don't understand anything about me," MegaMan muttered. "Nothing at all."

"That's what you want to believe," I countered. "But you don't want to leave Lan because he is your source of happiness. I am merely saying that you can find the same happiness in darkness. Servitude to Lord XANA is much more fulfilling than any life you can imagine."

"Liar!" Rage flowed through MegaMan's eyes, a flaming glare of determination that could've burned a hole through titanium. "You only claim to understand me because you really know nothing at all. The only similarity we have is our DNA structure. Otherwise, we are completely opposite."

"That is irrelevant," I retorted. "Once you have tasted the darkness, you will never want to turn back."

The fire in MegaMan's eyes remained in full blaze, despite the looming figure of the Scyphozoa just ahead of our path; I merely staged a conversation with him just to hear his final thoughts before falling a victim to darkness. Of course, all he had to say was the exact opposite of the darkloid mind frame. I thought his sentences would be far less defiant once MegaMan knew he was destined to become one of XANA's minions, but his overpowering will manifested itself in the inferno mirrored inside his eyes; refusal to succumb to despair was the obvious trait surfacing onto my blue counterpart.

"You claim to be called Night MegaMan, but you know what, you're just another Dark Mega," MegaMan snarled. "You both talk about darkness like it's your life. And neither of you have one."

That insult stabbed me straight in the heart. I knew he was right; I truly had a pointless existence. Darkness was the only thing my life included, and servitude to Lord XANA utilized that. I was well aware that once XANA's ambition for world domination came to reality, he would just kill me, as no ruler wants another king.

But by then, I would be willing to die, as life would no longer be meaningful after my service to XANA had ended.

However, I didn't want MegaMan to know he struck a weak spot, and I hid my bitterness behind another show of false confidence. "Perhaps you are right. Perhaps you are wrong. But know, once you've become a darkloid, there is no reversing it. You will serve XANA for eternity. Therefore, I, as your comrade-to-be, recommend you show Lord XANA some respect."

"Well, isn't that just a pity, because I have no respect for XANA," MegaMan snapped. He picked up his head and glanced at the menacing Scyphozoa, his emerald eyes trembling with sadness, like death was approaching him in the form of a giant squid-like monster. His voice was weighed down by a melancholy yet scornful whisper. "But it won't matter now."

The Scyphozoa levitated ahead, extending tentacles, eager for another hapless victim.

"Well, Mega, your chariot awaits," I said loudly, keeping a casual tone that I usually reserved for talking about the weather. "And may I remind you that while you take your sweet long time, Lord XANA will continue attacking the school? Just wanted to let you know."

MegaMan did not respond to that. He walked straight into the Scyphozoa's many-tentacle embrace, not heaving down his steps despite his reluctance to become a darkloid. Again, I noted his dedication for humanity as he took his final steps towards the monster he so dreaded.

Just as the Scyphozoa wrapped its tentacles around his body, MegaMan squirmed, still reluctant to be accepted as a servant of XANA. But then, a red aura enveloped MegaMan's body and he suddenly became limp, as if all the life had just been snapped out of him in one deadly moment.

The Scyphozoa placed three appendages against MegaMan's forehead, and a haunted glare that so resembled Lan's ghastly eyes, replaced his once vigorous look. Data traveled across the tentacles in the form of red liquid, and, from the corner of my eye, I saw as XANA deactivated his own tower; the deal had been made.

** `````````````Interruption of Night Mega's Perspective````````````````````````````````````**

The pain stilled.

The prickling, ensnaring vines loosened, and Lan's limp body fell onto the floor. The vines retracted into the ground, and the psychotic colors of the Dimensional Area faded away. Lan tugged himself to his feet. _What happened?_  
Why did XANA stop his attack? A throbbing sensation stabbed his legs. A long, bloody slash stretched across his lower leg, a memento of the Dimensional Area that would probably remain there for weeks.

Or at least, so Lan thought. A large white sphere encircled the world, and the feeling of deja vu was about to be put into practice.

"Time's almost up," Mrs. Mayors chimed. "Only three minutes remain."

Lan looked up from his test paper. When Mrs. Mayors had said that the first time around, sweat had flowed down Lan's forehead like a waterfall, and it was doing so once again. Lan hadn't completed the test, and he was sure it was only getting more difficult for Hub. He glanced at his brother's seat.

_Empty._

Completely empty. Hub's desk had no books, lacked a backpack, and basically didn't possess a single sign of Hub every sitting there. That in itself was strange, as Lan recalled that Hub was present during the test, but he didn't have time to dwell on the thought as Mrs. Mayors approached his desk and demanded the exam paper.

Lan, all too grateful that the math test was over, did not even argue and did as asked. He handed in his exam paper and hustled towards the door.

There, he was encountered by a very stern-looking Jeremy Belpois.

"Lan, have you seen Hub at all today?" Jeremy asked, though his tone was demanding enough to be interpreted as an order.

"What kind of question is that?" Lan retorted. "Of course, I—" Lan paused in mid-sentence; he had just remembered Hub's seat had been empty. His tone switched to that of anxiety. "Jeremy, what's going on?!"

"I'm supposing that you haven't seen Hub, then," Jeremy noted.

"I. . .I didn't! But. . .Jeremy, what's happening? Why did we go back in time? I thought you said the return to the past wasn't functional!"

"That's what I thought, too."

Jeremy's expression was so grave, Lan thought the computer genius was just returning from a funeral. Jeremy's morbid tone carried onto his next sentence. "Lan, I'm going to check out the factory. Tell the others I won't be at lunch. If anything happens. . ."

"I know," Lan said. "If anything happens, sound the alarm, skip school, and run to the factory."

"You got it."

**``````````````````Continuation of Night Mega's Perspective``````````````````````````**

"You have done well, Night MegaMan."

I whirled around, only to be standing face-to-face with my oh-so-wonderful superior, LaserMan. I never respected him, and whenever he annoyed me, I retaliated with the insult of calling his tunic a skirt.

"These are not the droids you are looking for," I said, knowing full well LaserMan was opposed to movies; I also did that when I wanted him to leave me alone, which meant that I was constantly reciting movie lines.

However, LaserMan gave me an unexpected reaction. He chuckled. "You seem so cocky now, _Mega,_ but wait until you hear what XANA has ordered."

I grimaced. He said that sentence with such confidence, such relish that it sounded like he was getting some sort of promotion. And that higher rank probably included the ability to punish any brazen-mouthed darkloids, which, of course, put me into the category.

I took my chance. "Okay, I'll bite. What's he want?"

There, teenage slang. That was my third way of aggravating LaserMan.

However, I again received a lack of annoyance from my commander. In itself, his tone was gleeful enough to convince me he was smiling. His helmet obscured his features, but yet I detected a grin on his face; it was like he finally obtained the present he had been searching, desiring to find.

"Lord XANA has ordered your execution."

I burst out laughing. I had heard the outrageous Humpty Dumpty and Cinderella fairy tales, but that ridiculous statement surpassed both those stories and all other tactless myths. "Lord XANA? Ordering to kill me? Hah hah hah! Oh, that's rich, Skirt-Man, that's a riot! I never knew you had it in you to be funny! LOL!"

"And who said he was joking?"

That icy voice caused a chill to creep down my spine. The temperature of the room seemed to drop. There, in his full royal glory, stood my master, XANA. He was what you had imagined Death to look like in human form.

Intense, madness-inducing eyes, velvet, silver-shining long hair, and a long, blood-red scythe. His armor was modeled like a gladiator's, black overriding layers of iron plates fit to intercede any and every kind of blow. On his chest, a silver bulls-eye emblem glimmered, glowing from time to time like a heart constantly pumping blood to the rest of the body. A crimson cape flowed down his back, and it bounced off the non-existing wind as XANA approached us.

"My lord," I said in awe, bowing to the towering figure of my noble master. XANA eyed me with distaste. "You mocked my command, mongrel. I have deemed your usefulness as over, and therefore you are to comply with my wishes."

"But why?!" I could feel my body shivering, as if XANA's mere presence had lowered the thermostat to the conditions of Alaska. This could not be happening; I had not even seen XANA's plan of world domination strike reality. Would I die before I was even willing to surrender what I had called life?

"Why, Lord XANA? Why must I die now?" I pleaded.

Flames flickered in my master's eyes. His voice was like a roar, a snarl of a full-grown dragon spewing fire. "Do you know how I revived you, Mega? Do you know why I even saw fit to restore _your_ programming?"

"D-didn't you create me t-to be an ally?" My voice trembled, like cold was seeping into my bones. "I-I was created to serve y-you. . .to counter MegaMan!"

"Idiot," XANA spat. "That's what Regal told you, wasn't it?"

"Y-yes," I stammered. "That's what he said."

The glare in XANA's eyes blazed further. His scythe glowed with a sinister dark aura, a sign for me to back away.

"You were created from MegaMan's stolen Double-Soul programs," he growled. "Regal wanted an ally capable of the Soul Union, and you were the only candidate. But now, we no longer need you as we have the real MegaMan. A clone like you is worthless, and all we need is your data now. Your service had ended."

"NO!" I could feel my tiny metallic heart pounding like a prisoner banging against his cell doors, determined to get the jailer's attention. "No, my lord! I have been loyal to you! Please, at least spare my life until I can see your great victory over the human world! I-I. . ."

"Enough," cut in LaserMan. "You heard what he said."

I was crestfallen; the highlight of my life, the one happiness I received by serving XANA, was destroyed by the one command I never expected him to give. If only this were a nightmare, a dream that I would soon jolt awake from after XANA stabbed his scythe through my emblem; that thought was blissful, but I knew it was impossible—virtual beings never sleep.

We never had dreams, for reality was so engraved in our minds that alternate possibilities never existed. No; This was all happening for real, and now my insignificant life would be destroyed by the one master I ever felt complete loyalty to.

"However," XANA said. "I will give you a thirty minute reprieve. Cherish this final half hour of your life. Afterwards. . ."  
He swiped his scythe through the air, and just like that, XANA was gone.

**Q````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````**

I was all alone now.

Sitting in the base platform of a dormant blue tower, I was left to only my thoughts for entertainment. I didn't want to rebel against Lord XANA because of his order, but I had no desire to see it carried out, either. Therefore, I took the indecisive path: hiding out in the last place they would look for me. I had selected a tower at random in the Forest Sector, and I knew they wouldn't look for me in this territory as I made it clear I had no affection for nature.

Then again, I never took the time out of my day to gaze at nature, nor anything else for that matter; darkness was the only thing visible in my life, if you could term it by that word. In reality, I had groped blindly in my own darkness, shielding myself from the truth that I had nothing worth living for, let alone a reason to continue my pointless life.

Yet the tiny spark in me willed to ignite, and my motivation to stay alive strengthened.

That's why I'm here now, protected and obscured by the tower walls, contemplating on my choices. However, I already knew what my resolve would be. I extended my right arm, and opened my palm, stretching my fingers as far as apart as they could possibly go. My fingers clenched slightly, like tiny little claws scratching at an invisible ball of yarn.

I closed my eyes and allowed a surge of power to pulse through my tendrils. Static tinged my nerves, but yet I willed the flow to continue. When I opened my eyes, an apple-sized sphere of blue light was floating just above my palm.

"I'm sorry, Mega," I said quietly, pleading a silent prayer for my gene donor to forgive me. "My fault entirely."  
The sphere shivered and a tiny white glimmer was present inside the sea-colored light, as if MegaMan's soul felt my remorse.

Indeed, that orb I was holding was MegaMan's soul data; the Scyphozoa had stolen it from him. Normally, that would have resulted in death, but XANA had already prepared for that. Replacing MegaMan's core with his own virus-infected data, XANA had ensured that MegaMan would remain his mindless slave, an eternal servant without the brains to rebel.

Efforts to regain that data quickly met with success as no one would have ever suspected what my next choice would be. Yet, I already knew what decision I would make. Deep down, I had already confessed that my life was a whole string of false hopes, but yet I needed one last motivation to commit outright treason to XANA.

I plunged my fingers into the tiny blue orb, and a whole wave of MegaMan's memories crashed into my head.

I saw a sacrifice, a near death as a result from a powerful blast of WWW's MagicMan; then, a resurrection thanks to Lan's iron resolve. A secret had been revealed, and a deep, surpassing-all will emerged as a result. The Life-Virus towered above, but yet it soon ceased to exist as the final blow was dealt, and the Life-Virus disintegrated into oblivion.

I saw a gray-haired red-eyed child monitoring the giant wolf of the Grave Virus Beast, and then, an explosion, with my gene donor finally deleting the monster's menacing form. Electricity was crackling in the background, but yet Lan's confident smile was still there, despite the immense damage he and his brother had received.

Then, in another flash, was a long-flowing brown cloak, and the crimson eyes of Bass flared with rage as he hurled the infamous finishing Earth-Breaker. A spectacular dodge from my counterpart, and the fight soon ended with a well-thought final strike; Bass collapsed, victory and celebration evident. Another blurry flash, and I saw my gene donor covered in Alpha's consuming slime, preparing to overload his systems in attempt to save Lan.

Another memory wave washed away, and I saw a meteor heading towards Earth, along with a heated battle between my mirrored navi and the self-appointed god called Duo. The scene blurred quite often, as if the details were so vague that discrimination of events was almost impossible.

Everything faded again, a memory resurfacing. I saw a clashing of swords, and a tall white-haired red navi striking with twin blades. An obvious friendly battle, as the two combatants casually slammed into each other, roaring with brotherly laughter as the fight had concluded. More memories slid by, and I saw the same white-haired navi, except this time he was clad in purple, a complete sign he had been infected by a Dark Chip. My counterpart was engaged in battle with him once more, though this time the outcome made the difference between life and death.

Finally, the last memory of arriving in human world showed, and the overjoyed reaction of Lan made the scene quite touching, for the two brothers were reunited once again.

I withdrew my fingers from the orb as I saw the twins embrace, for I regarded watching more as an invasion of privacy. I had seen enough. At long last, I finally understood why MegaMan was so confident of his theory that I knew nothing about him. He was speaking the absolute truth.

I thought that MegaMan only stayed loyal to remaining the _good guy_ was because he was happy that way; if stopping evil brought him joy, shouldn't it have become a common hobby?

However, I saw much more behind the layers of happiness MegaMan projected.

There was a deep, ingrained loyalty giving life to his being, a heartfelt, core-shaking will that surpassed all odds—it was a motivation to ascend beyond the challenges of life, something that could rattle even the heavens like an earthquake. It was an intense bonding will that transcended above the barrier blocking the cyber-net and the human realm; a binding force of willpower and loyalty that reached far beyond any limits of life and death, separate worlds, and the infinite unknowns of the universe.

My resolution, which I had predicted from the start, had been made: I would join forces with Lan and whoever else was on his side, with an attempt to restore MegaMan to his rightful place as the Hikari navi. My betrayal to Lord XANA had been finalized; it was time to put it into practice.

**A/N: And that's it for Chapter 19! I'm going to be doing Trivia Questions from now on, just as a little bonus thing for those of you who enjoy such a thing. Since we did a Code: Lyoko question last time, here's a question for players of the MegaMan Battle Network games: which game(s) did MegaMan turn evil in? **

**Please R&R!**


	20. Chapter 20

**A/N: Little fun fact, I'm posting this earlier than intended. I'm not going to be able to post for the rest of March and (most of) April, so I'm posting Chapter 20 NOW, so that you can all read it. (BTW, in case you're all wondering the answer to Chapter 19's trivia question was BOTH Battle Network 4 and Battle Network 5. Either one or both was a valid answer.)**

**_Chapter 20: Continuation of Night MegaMan's Perspective_**

I floated straight into Lan's PET. It was easy; MegaMan's soul data guided me there, and it was thanks to that core program the security did not stop me from entering the PET storage banks. The PET mistakenly assumed I was MegaMan, though I knew that would not be the case with Lan. My grey jumpsuit in itself would scream my identity for him.

I took a gamble. "Lan?"  
No answer; the PET screen remained black. Either Lan had turned its power off or there was some sort of outer obstacle blocking the screen. The latter option had a higher probability of being true, and therefore I raised the volume to max. "LAN!"

Several loud clanging sounds answered me, as if Lan had stowed his PET in a drawer and was scrambling to find the device among other useless clutter. However, the sound of a zipper opening knocked that idea out of place, telling me Lan had shoved his PET into a backpack rather than a drawer.

"MegaMan!" Lan's voice was filled with excitement, and for one scary minute, I debated on using my chameleon powers to change my jumpsuit to blue.

However, before I could even make that decision, Lan's face suddenly appeared in front of me, and an expression of distaste filled his features. "What do you want, Dark Mega?" he snapped, hate evident in his chocolate-brown eyes.

Immediately, I knew that if Lan was looking at the real MegaMan, such a glare would never exist in the windows to his soul; but I was a clone, a pale imitation of the brother Lan so loved.

_A clone like you is worthless, _XANA had said.

He was completely right. I held no importance in anyone's eyes, and, like all clones, I was a mere façade of a real life. Wallowing in self-pity was tempting now, but I had to try to talk to Lan. I was the only one capable of restoring MegaMan to his former glory, but I needed help—and Lan was the ideal candidate for assistance.

"Listen to me, Lan," I began. "You may know me as Dark Mega, but I'm different—I changed now. My name is Night MegaMan, and I'm not working for XANA."

Lan's eyes scanned my persona, searching for any possible lies. It was like getting x-rayed by two chocolate-brown dinner plate-sized laser beams.

"What do you mean?" he demanded, still suspicious of my presence.

I wanted to convince Lan of my trustworthiness, but I knew my time was limited. Soon, XANA and the darkloids would become aware of my disappearance, and I knew they would send pursuits on my tail. I had to explain everything fast.

"Lan, I know you will have a difficult time believing me, but. . ." I took a deep breath, trying to reassure myself that as long as I spoke the truth, things might ascend higher on the luck scale. "But I know where MegaMan is."

Lan's eyes widened, and this time, they reflected interest rather than hate.

"Where is he?!" Lan exclaimed. "What happened to him?!"

I hesitated. I felt jealous of MegaMan; if only I had someone out there who was so concerned about my well-being. But. . .no, now wasn't the time to feel sympathetic about my wasted life! I needed help and beating around the bush wasn't aiding this endeavor!

I took another deep breath and explained the situation to Lan. I told him of how XANA agreed to stop his attack because of MegaMan's agreement to surrendering to the Scyphozoa. I told him of the Scyphozoa's ability to inflict the XANA virus on its victims and I related how XANA wanted to use MegaMan's Double Soul to his own advantage. Lastly, in a small, meek voice, I explained how XANA had replaced MegaMan's soul data with his own virus codes, thus implanting in him an automatic loyalty. Lan had a hard time in trusting that fact, but when I summoned MegaMan's soul for him to see, he finally comprehended the meaning of my words.

"W. . .why are you telling me all of this?" Lan demanded. His tone still remained steeped in anger. "How do I know this isn't all some sort of trick?"

I lowered my gaze, ashamed of both my façade of a life and the self-pity I soon felt afterward.

"I. . .I betrayed XANA," I said quietly. "I. . .I swear to you, Lan, I have no reason to trick you. Please, MegaMan is in XANA's hands! B. . .believe me!"

I hoped Lan would detect my sincerity, but he was still suspicious. His expression did not soften. Had I, as Dark Mega, been so devious and evil that even Lan was compelled to be so dubious about my intentions?

"And if I do believe you, what happens?" Lan asked.

That put me into a tight spot; I had not thought of that part yet. All I knew was that I needed Lan's aid, and the only thing I had to offer was my knowledge of MegaMan's whereabouts. Other than that, I had no idea how to set him free from XANA's control.

"Just. . .just trust me, Lan. That's all I ask of you."  
'That's a pretty tall order," Lan growled. "I'm supposed to _trust _the evil clone of my navi who tried to kill me more times than I can count. _Great idea._"  
I

was crestfallen. I had heard that children could be cruel, but I never imagined how harsh and demeaning their cruelty could stretch to. Was that the way the world functioned? Was cruelty such a vital skill that even little children knew how to utilize it? Perhaps that was why darkness had gotten so powerful; it was ingrained into the human soul. It was the truth, and because of that I knew I had wasted my time trying to reason with a human.

"Fine," I said bitterly. "Behave as you will. If you don't trust me, then there's no point arguing with you all day." I turned my back to Lan, ready to exit the PET. "Just know that you have sealed MegaMan's fate of being the eternal servant of XANA."

And with that happy note, I stomped away from the PET data base, preparing to jump into the data stream, knowing that I'd return to the vulnerable Lyoko and a better chance of capture from XANA's minions.

"Wait."

I whirled my head around, for my brain registered Lan's voice.

"You really mean it? You. . .you left XANA and MegaMan's really in danger?"

Astonishment struck me in the form of a slight cringe. Finally, Lan comprehended my dire message. Maybe darkness wasn't the only component of the human soul; perhaps it was possible for trust to also surface onto one's identity.

"Yes, I mean it. If you want to save your navi, Hikari, you have to offer me your complete trust. And don't you dare call me a _clone _ again."

**-End of Night MegaMan's POV-**

Tears of sweat dripped down Jeremy's face. An unidentified virtual signature had appeared in the Skidbladnir's docking room, and the only Lyoko Warriors Jeremy could get hold of were Odd, Yumi, and Aelita. Ulrich was currently in the principal's office, involved in a heated conversation with his father, arguing over a failure of a report card; Lan, however, was nowhere to be seen. The same held true with Hub Hikari, though Jeremy wouldn't have summoned him anyway.

"_Blame other people for the code. You just see yourself as too intelligent to admit it was your own fault." _

Those words stung Jeremy straight through the heart, and he partly happy that he had not seen Hub after that mysterious return to the past. He didn't want to hear those arrogant words again.

"Make another left, and you'll be in the Skid's docking room," Jeremy said, dismissing the unpleasant thought. "We're there, Jeremy," came Aelita's reply. "And-EEEEKK!"

Aelita's scream was magnified by twice the volume thanks to the speakers, and her life points dropped from the full 100 to 50.

"Aelita! Aelita, what's going on?" Jeremy shouted.

"Jeremy!" Aelita's voice rasped. "We. . .we're being attacked by Hub!"

**`````````LYOKO``````````````````````**

Indeed, the shadowy figure standing across from the shielded Skidbladnir was Hub/MegaMan, though he was much different from the friendly navi the Lyoko Warriors had known.

The first contrasting factor came mainly from appearance.

MegaMan's eyes would have remained completely white sockets if not for the purple XANA-symbol engraved into his pupils. Coiled around his form were snake-like purple vines, set up in the appearance of the blood-vein network of the human body. And the liquid-like spidery XANA-symbol on his chest acted as the heart. Pumping sinister black energy through the veins, the XANA-mark made it was obvious who was supplying MegaMan with life.

His buster came readily to his hand and even the arm-cannon was enveloped by the purple veins. Triple flares of black energy fired from MegaMan's buster and, when the Lyoko Warriors evaded the shots, the blasts arched off of the walls, rocketing straight back at them like big black boomerangs. Odd and Yumi were lucky enough to dodge, but Aelita was caught in the blast arc and lost 50 life points as a result.

"Aelita!" Yumi hastened to reach her friend's injured form. MegaMan unhesitatingly turned his buster towards her, charging for another triple blast. There was no emotion in his eyes, no remorse for striking down one he called friend. . .

"Oh, no, you don't!" yelled Odd, springing into the fray and launching several laser arrows towards his once-trusted ally. The triangle-shaped projectiles struck one of the veins, causing it to split open and spew liquid-like data that resembled human blood. Odd was aghast when he saw such a visual, but then the vein hissed, squirmed like a snake, and reconnected with its sliced half, regenerating together with ease.

"Gross," Odd muttered.

MegaMan instantly turned to the cat boy, hate dawning upon his eyes. A sword, glimmering crimson with fluid-like data oozing inside of it, replaced his buster. The blade was also covered with veins, as if built in and customized to MegaMan's body.

"I take it back," Odd said when the XANA-fied navi lunged at him. The cat boy's shield formed instantly, but the powerful bash from MegaMan's sword shattered it.

At that point, Yumi intervened, and her two fans did a neat slice of MegaMan's arm-veins. He bellowed in pain, screaming with the echoed XANA tones of a XANA-fied person. His sword swipes were done in a frenzy, blindly targeted and giving Odd an opportunity to back up and jump on his newly-materialized over-board.

MegaMan growled, and his veins hissed, regenerating process already in practice. Odd aimed again, but hesitated. Would de-virtualizing him in this state send MegaMan to XANA or permanent deletion? He had to consult the expert.

"Jeremy, what should I do?!" Odd shouted. "Should I de-virtualize him?"

"NO!" Jeremy's voice was filled with anxiety, as if he, too, was unsure of the next course of action. "Just stall for time!"

"Until when?"

"Until I can think of what to do next!"

"Thanks. That's reassuring, Einstein."

A lightning blast streaked past Odd's arm, grazing his elbow and inflicting a burnt sting. Standing across from the cat boy was a full-ready MegaMan.

"Aw, great," Odd said sarcastically. "Electric powers, too? This guy doesn't play fair."

MegaMan did not take kindly to that comment and summoned several electric orbs. Four deadly spheres of thunderous energy surrounded him and like a commander, MegaMan flung them at his unwilling opponents with a single gesture. The first sphere lunged towards Odd, but he dodged it with ease.

"Missed!" the cat boy gloated as his over-board performed a dramatic swerve to dodge the orb set upon him. However, much to his surprise and displeasure, Odd realized that the spheres behaved like homing devices, gaining sight of their target and pursuing them despite all effort-filled evasion. He learned that lesson the hard way as the orb made an about-face and tackled him out of the blue.

"Odd!" Yumi yelled. Too late; Odd was stunned and a second orb de-virtualized him. Yumi's own homing sphere caught up with her thanks to her moment of distraction, but the newly-materialized over-wing intervened and absorbed the blow, disintegrating on the spot. Three orbs down; two more to worry about.

Or, so Yumi thought. The forth homing orb struck Aelita for 50 points of damage, and in the next second, she was but a grid of fading pixels.

"Aelita!" shouted Jeremy's frantic voice. "Yumi, it's up to you now! You can't let the Skid be destroyed! Fight. . .and de-virtualize him if you have to!"

"But, Jeremy!" Yumi protested. "What if Hub is permanently destroyed if we de-virtualize him?"

"Can't be helped!" the computer genius answered. "We can't risk the Skid! Mega has joined XANA now! He's in the league of monsters. He must be destroyed!"

"**Destroy?" ** MegaMan echoed in a dead, cold voice. Electricity, enough to cause a whole thunderstorm coated his arms, sparking through his veins. "**Destroy!" **He fired a lightning-fast bundled beam of electricity at Yumi's form.

She leaped sideways, but the beam swerved leftward, adjusting to her movements, tracking her digital signature. . .

"NO!" Jeremy's voice reverberated through the speakers. The beam was too fast for Yumi to dodge, and if Yumi was de-virtualized. . .no, Jeremy didn't want to think about it. He was about to announce the situation as hopeless, but then a new hope came in the form of an unidentified virtual mark appearing on the holomap, jumping in front of Yumi. . .who was that?

"Anti-Elec!" bellowed the unknown newcomer, his voice an exact copy of MegaMan's lively tones. The lightning beam struck him full-force, but then the battle-chip activated. Blue thunderbolts began raining from the sky, striking MegaMan so intensely that he vanished, dissipating into the air with black smoke, resembling the way William made his entrances and exits.

"What?" Yumi stared in awe at the stranger. He looked exactly like MegaMan, both in shape in size, with the exception of his purple jumpsuit and reversed blue Hikari symbol. He turned around to face Yumi, fixing her to a piercing haunted look of his gray eyes.

"Delighted to meet you, Miss Isiyama," the stranger said casually. "You may not know me, but I'll be delighted to inform you of my identity. My name is Night MegaMan, and believe it or not, I also hate XANA! Want to form the I-hate-XANA club? T-shirts included."

Now Yumi stared at him with awkwardness. Great way to introduce yourself, offering free T-shirts to virtual beings who don't _need_ clothing changes.

"Lan!" said Jeremy's voice over the speakers. "What on Earth are you doing here? Where were you?"

"Jeremy Belpois, I assume," Night MegaMan said calmly, lifting his eyes to the sky in order to address the seemingly invisible computer genius. "The paranoid operator. I don't know if I should be saying this,  
but. . .I'm delighted to meet you. You do realize I say that to everyone, right?" The clone navi didn't want for a response. "Don't pressure Lan for an explanation, I'm to blame for his tardiness. So, do you want to explain everything or would you prefer to remain, as you humans say, _in the dark_?"

Ah; _in the dark. _How ironic of a being of darkness to be using such wording. It would have also been ironic if Jeremy had selected the latter option, but, predictably, he chose to hear the explanation.

Night MegaMan sighed. "Well, ladies and gentlemen, get your favorite bag of chips. Popcorn. Whatever. This'll be a long story."

Ah, again there was irony as he was offering food to virtual beings who don't eat.

**A/N: And that's a wrap for Chapter 20! Wait. . .Chapter 20?! Wow, I never thought I'd reach this point. . .**

**Jeremy: And you'll probably react like this upon reaching Chapter 30.**

**Me: Oh, shut up, Jeremy. *Ah-hem* Well, people, please review! The button for it is, like, not even two feet away!**

**Lan: Hey, what about the trivia question?**

**Me: Oh. . .right. *clears throat* In which episode was the Skidbladnir destroyed? **


	21. Chapter 21

**A/N: Hello, everyone! I want to thank you all for you patience. A lot of issues have sprung up recently, which makes it hard to keep according to a decent writing schedule. I'm going to do what I can, but, to reiterate, it will take awhile. **

**As for the answer to Chapter 20's trivia question _(In which episode was the Skidbladnir destroyed?), _the answer was Episode 93: "Down to Earth".**

**And, without further ado, I bring you, Chapter 21!**

Lan had heard that darkness—and all beings attributed to it—were unstable, like a person balancing on one foot. However, he hadn't imagined how contrasting Night MegaMan's personality traits were. One minute, he was hanging his head in shame, describing the tragic story of MegaMan's conversion to XANA's servant, and now, he was mirthful and confident, casually talking to the Lyoko Warriors as if they were discussing the weather.

"And that's basically the situation now," Night MegaMan concluded, his expression nearly unreadable. He either could have been so joyous that people were listening to him, or he could've been lamenting, guilty of the fact that his actions caused the entire farce.

Lan, however, noticed one key fact: Night MegaMan had neglected to mention that he now held MegaMan's remaining soul data. Was that deliberate or accidental?

"Wow," Odd commented. "Just. . .wow. I never expected Hub to. . .do something like that."

"I know," Aelita said quietly, awed as if she was eulogizing a death. "And not many people would be willing to make that kind of sacrifice."

"My fault," muttered Jeremy.

"Huh?" the others all turned to the computer genius.

"It's all my fault!" Jeremy wailed. "I should've. . .I should've put some sort of defense into Mega to prevent the Scyphozoa from getting him!"

"There is no defense for that, Jeremy," Aelita pointed out. "If MegaMan hadn't done what he did, XANA wouldn't have spared anybody."

"You may be right, Aelita," Yumi piped in, just entering the factory laboratory. "But, now what? There's no way to set MegaMan free now. He. . .he's just like. . ."

Ah, they had reached the forbidden subject: William. Out of the Lyoko Warriors, Yumi had taken William's imprisonment by XANA the hardest, and the fact that William had not been encountered recently was worrying her. Did XANA just kill him, now that he has hundreds of other Darkloid minions by his side?

"Ah, my dear humans, all is not lost," Night MegaMan said reassuringly. "You are aware that I contain MegaMan's stolen soul data?"

"You never told us that!" Odd protested.

Night MegaMan seemed genuinely baffled. Was his face displaying his true feelings or had he omitted that piece of information on purpose? Lan wondered, not voicing the nagging thoughts in his mind.

Night MegaMan gave a polite bow. "Oh, I forgot? As you humans say, my bad."

His tone may have been mirthful, but yet it carried an arrogant quality, as if Night MegaMan considered humans a separate, inferior species, not worth being studied. Jeremy made a wry face, forgetfulness a trait he dearly opposed.

"You forgot," he deadpanned.

"Whatever," Night MegaMan replied. "I told what you wanted, so what's the harm? Or are you saying you still suspect I am under the employment of XANA?"

Jeremy glanced at Aelita and the two exchanged nervous expressions. That notion was not completely absent from their brains, and it seemed like a logical possibility.

"Well, for all you know," Night MegaMan went on, "I, the mutated clone of the glorious MegaMan, might be leading you right into a trap!"

He said that sentence with such a ludicrous, sing-song voice one would be entirely convinced of the opposite; the accompanied laughter also would have helped dissuade one from the notion of Night MegaMan's loyalty to XANA.

Lan was taken greatly aback; Night MegaMan had been so emotional before, looking so melancholy and miserable it seemed he was about to burst into tears any minute. Yet, now, he was so perky, so upbeat that his jolliness could have competed with Lan's. Was this normal?

"Well, now," Night MegaMan said. "It all comes down to this: are you going to trust me? And, if I may remind you, I clearly demonstrated I have enough power to counter a XANA-fied MegaMan. You would lose a great support if you reject me." He nodded in Lan's direction. "And Lan already trusts me. You would do an injustice if you didn't believe in Lan's judgment."

Another exchange of nervous glances; clearly, the Lyoko Warriors felt unhinged by the forgery of their one-time ally MegaMan. Yet, as the clone pointed out, it all came down to the vital question:

Should they put belief in what they knew to be a trap?

**O``````````````````````````````````````````**

If one were to watch a horror movie, such a film would not be enough to prepare one for this heart-panging sight in reality.

Deployed in single file like dominoes were hundreds upon hundreds of rows of undead Undernet navis. Though they came in several different colors—navi, violet, and dark purple—they were all the same; disk- like heads, spike-held shoulders, beady, narrow eyes and large, buff body armor.

Each Undernet navi, also called Heelnavis by fear-filled outsiders, had their eyes steeled shut, keeping their body in a slouching position. They were inanimate, only activating once they received orders from their commander, who was currently striding along the many rows, taking the well-earned pride of kidnapping and manipulating these minions.

The Undernet was not governed by humans, and missing Heelnavis would therefore go unnoticed by the authorities. XANA had taken a liking to that convenience and, since the Undernet was filled with plenty of potential minions, it was the perfect place to set up base, as well as a wonderful area to gain more followers if need be. Willful joining or manipulation, XANA didn't care; as long as he attainted his goal, any means justified the successful end result.

He smiled as he stalked to the far-off exit of the room.

Standing several feet from the wall was his most prized capture. MegaMan stood with his head tucked down, eyes clasped shut as if in stasis. His veins were clear-colored, so see-through that they were invisible unless one was looked closely.

From afar, he seemed to be in a normal sleep-mode state, but XANA knew he was gazing at his most powerful and loyal minion. He did not have the brain, nor soul, to rebel. XANA's smirk became even wider and he laughed, a cold, spellbinding sound that so resembled the evil of his caliber.

It was such a glorifying feeling, having a sworn enemy your slave; it was the perfect way to disgrace and punish him for all the trouble he gave in the past. True, perhaps MegaMan was more of a recent nuisance, but XANA knew that had the navi persisted longer, he would've reached the abominable level of a Lyoko Warrior; this method of eternal servitude was much more convenient.

"You should not have employed him."

XANA turned. There, standing at the corner of the chamber, was LaserMan, holding his arms folded as if reprimanding a minion's failure.

"What are you referring to?" XANA asked, voice let down in an undertone.

LaserMan tilted his head, as if trying to say the answer was straight in front of him. "MegaMan. Lord XANA, he is unlike us. He cannot be trusted."

"You have misgivings about my choice?" XANA said mockingly. "MegaMan has nothing left in him to resist me. He is my servant now, just like that William boy."

"Perhaps that is so," LaserMan replied. "But I firmly believe that no incarnation of MegaMan can be trusted. Even Night MegaMan, whom we created from pure darkness, betrayed us. MegaMan would surely be tempted to do the same."

An expression of amusement surfaced on XANA's face. "Night MegaMan had a weak heart; he is no loss. Even if he planned to strike back at us, he is little to no threat." XANA paused, eyes slinking back and forth, awaiting for the counterargument from his lieutenant; LaserMan, however, seemed to be aware that the opening XANA provided him with was not a favorable one. He therefore remained silent.

"Furthermore," XANA continued. "I personally find it wasteful to kill an enemy, especially a powerful one. Why kill someone who could help, if manipulated to the right degree? Much more convenient to gain an ally than slay one, don't you think? MegaMan opposed us so many times, I think it's right that now he _serves_ us."

LaserMan coughed, clearing his voice for the retort. "You were most ingenious in stealing MegaMan's soul data before seizing control of him, my lord."

"Your point?" XANA demanded, knowing full well that LaserMan was not taking the time out of his day to compliment him; this was part of the counterargument.

"The soul data has been stolen," Laserman said simply.

XANA did a double take, eyes narrowing on LaserMan then widening, as if to challenge him in saying, _April Fool! _

"It's true, Lord XANA. Haven't I already made my suspicions clear to you before?"

"Night MegaMan," XANA rasped. "Night MegaMan stole the data and betrayed us?"

LaserMan was smirking under his helmet. He knew that such a concept would unhinge XANA; the danger of employing former enemies was the chance of them returning to their old mind frame. Darkloids were much easier to work with.

"He always had a soft spot for the Hikari boy," LaserMan explained. "He'll want to bring MegaMan back just to find favor in Hikari's eyes. He's on their side now, with the data that can break _your_ hold on MegaMan. Do you want to take that chance?"

"No," XANA insisted. "Night MegaMan is too weak! He would not have enough strength to perform such treachery!"

"He is the only one who can, however," LaserMan confirmed. "A navi's soul data can only be absorbed by another navi with the same signature code. And Night MegaMan was the one who intervened by the Skidbladnir. He has betrayed us; you yourself said this was not such a loss. He is only threatening because of the data he holds. If we kill him, our problems will be absolved."

XANA's expression was agitated; it was clear he was looking for a loophole in order for which to counter, but there was none.

"Fine," XANA spat, containing his emotions so that LaserMan couldn't later claim he had struck a weak spot. "Deploy the Darkloids. Give them the order for the full-out assault. And LaserMan. . ."

LaserMan grunted. "Yes?"

"Do not fail me. If you fail, the threat the Warriors will pose will be far greater than anything I could ever hope to intimidate you with."

**D`````````````````````````````````````**

As for the following two weeks, Lan blandly decided he had the worst luck in the ongoing history of children.

First, his brother gets possessed by the ever-irritating nuisance called XANA; next, his brother's evil clone, sorry—formerly evil clone—settles into his PET; then, Lan gets the front row seat of a fight between his friends and his XANA-fied brother, only to see that MegaMan now has a web of veins coiled around his body; after that, Lan gets treated to seeing the movie of zombie Jeremy, a version of the computer genius who constantly mutters to himself, pulls out multiple all-nighters, and is completely subject-obsessed, only talking about one thing for the duration of the zombie period.

Finally, as if his luck couldn't possibly go further downhill, Lan gets mistaken for Hub by his oh-so- clever gym teacher, Jim Morales, and is forced to do 65 push-ups as a consequence for missing multiple P.E. classes on a daily basis.

"But, Jim, I'm LAN! L-A-N! LAN!" the Hikari protested.

"Yeah, right!" Jim countered. "You think cosplaying as your brother can fool me, Hub? I know your tricks, I'm onto you, Hub! Now do those 70 push-ups!"

"You said 65!" Lan retorted.

"75!" Jim bellowed. "More complaints, and I'll raise it to. . .um. . .1,000!"

"That's not even possible for a human being!" Lan shouted, still on the ground and only half-way through the desired push-up amount.

"Well, MAKE IT POSSIBLE, Hub! You shoulda thought twice before messing with Jimbo!"

"Jimbo?" Lan asked. "That's your name?"

"Um. . ." Beads of sweat dripped down Jim's forehead. "I'd rather not talk about it."

Lan felt as if his arms had suddenly transformed into jelly. Push-ups were tiring, but the true thing that was wearing him out was the stress over Hub.

Hub's absence was starting to get noticed by the teachers, and, some were getting suspicious. Most notable, however, was Sissi Delmas, who relentlessly pestered Lan with the nagging request of revealing Hub's whereabouts. She was disappointed, time and again, by Lan's vague and sometimes negative answers, but that did not deter her from the aggravating and tedious question-flinging activity.

She would not rest until she knew Hub's location, as well as the reason why Jeremy and the others were hiding him.

Lan regarded her like a mosquito constantly flying around a person's head; annoying, unnecessary, and a complete pest. And, like all pests, Sissi found time in her day to act like that irritating mosquito Lan had compared her to, and she approached the young brunette once he had satisfied Jim by performing the desired number of push-up exercises.

Lan, who was currently drying the sweat from his forehead with the iconic Hikari-symbol bandana, was in no mood to talk to her.

"I know what you're going to ask," Lan snapped. "And no, I'm not telling you anything!"

"I never even began asking the question," Sissi said snidely. "If Jeremy's doing his wacko experiments on Hub—"

"Will you give it a rest, Sissi!" Lan shouted, "Jeremy's not a mad scientist! He's not doing any wacko experiments!"

"Then how come I haven't seen Hub for days?" Sissi countered. "How come he's always absent in class? In fact, where has Jeremy been? He hasn't been in class either."

"Urk. . ." Lan swallowed a gulp; Sissi had put him in check. How was he supposed to explain that Jeremy was spending all his time in the factory, trying to formulate a plan for freeing his manipulated comrades from XANA's control?

That reason wouldn't buy him an excused late note, that's for sure. Lan resorted to the easier idea; playing the delinquent. Rudeness was the best option for pests like Sissi Delmas.

"Are you a teacher, Sissi?" Lan retorted indignantly. "Because, last time I checked, the teachers were supposed to do roll call. Or did you skip 100 grades and you're our homeroom teacher now? If that's the case, I see why Hub not's here."

"LAN!" Sissi's face twisted with fury. Her eyes bored into Lan, as if trying to incinerate him with a single glance. "YOU—YOU—"

"Whatever you're thinking, right back at ya," Lan cut in. "Look, if you're just going to keep arguing with whatever I say, let's just not have this conversation. We're getting nowhere."

Sissi's enraged expression did not soften. She opened her mouth to spew more insults, but Lan rose his hand into the air, in the manner of someone trying to direct a street-crossing. He walked straight past Sissi, ignoring her insults and anger, and headed for boys' dormitory. Sissi could not follow him there, and Lan felt he deserved a break from the principal's daughter.

He had enough on his plate to deal with already, especially measuring it with the luck scale. Maybe, perhaps, his luck was so bad, the scales would weigh even and decide to tip over to his favor?

Lan dearly hoped the answer to that question was _yes_.

**D`````````````````````````````````**

_No._

Everything was going downhill, once again, as destiny would have it.

Assembled at the factory for tactics talk and arriving at a loss of ideas, the Lyoko Warriors (with the exception of Yumi—she couldn't afford to stay late without taking the danger of aggravating her parents into consideration) were more than happy to accept Night MegaMan's advice. However, when the clone navi revealed the information he had, (or at least some of it, as Jeremy was convinced Night MegaMan knew much more than he let on) their emotions switched to the morbid side.

"The Undernet?!" Lan exclaimed, complete and utter shock evident in his tone and expression. "That's where MegaMan is being held?!"

Night MegaMan slowly nodded. "XANA prefers hiding out there. It's dangerous enough as it already is."

"What's the Undernet?" asked Odd. "Is it. . .under the net? Ha ha! Get it?"

"Skip the jokes, Odd," muttered Ulrich, frustrated.

"He does have a fair point, though," Night MegaMan chimed in. "The word Undernet is a pun of the mythological Underworld, as it plays the same function the Underworld had."

"So you're saying the Undernet is where dead navis go?" Aelita asked, sounding repulsed.

"Not exactly," Night MegaMan said enigmatically. "It's more like the place that retains the ghost images of them. Navis don't have the same kind of souls humans have. The Undernet is just the place where their bitterness, their pain, their evil gathers. It's unpredictable and is always changing layouts, as the energy there retains no exact form. Plus, it's the only part of the Net not policed or controlled by humans. That's kind of the silent message to stay away. But, of course, XANA doesn't abide by any rules. . ."

Lan nodded, as all these facts were things he had already knew and learned the hard way.

However, he noted that Night MegaMan's tone was gleeful, affectionate even; was that his opinion of darkness and evil?

"It sounds like the place XANA would enjoy," Aelita commented, her expression and voice filled with disdain. "No wonder he's holding MegaMan there. He wants us to go a place that no one can predict—in other words, a trap."

"Correct," Night MegaMan confirmed. "Oh, yes, did I mention that all outward connections are nullified by the Undernet's interception signal? Venturing in there means no operators—and no Jeremy, either," he added quickly, just for Aelita's reaction.

"Interception signal?!" Jeremy said harshly (Aelita had fallen into silence). "You mean that there would be _no_ factory connection at all?"

"That's what I said," Night MegaMan replied swiftly.

"But what about the Transfer protocols?" Jeremy persisted. "If there's no access to them, what would happen if someone gets de-virtualized?"

"Oh, the Transfer programs should work," Night MegaMan reassured him. "The Undernet leaves a signal similar to the replicas; therefore, as the de-virtualization worked there, it would work in the Undernet. Direct contact, on the other hand. . ."

"Okay, we get it." Jeremy was frustrated now. _(How much knowledge was Night MegaMan withholding from them?)_ "How do we get to this Undernet?"

"Oh, well your Skidbladnir should be more than worthy for such a journey," Night MegaMan advised. "You would have to travel through quite a few networks before arriving at the Undernet. However, the Skidbladnir is more than capable for finding a direct access. Of course, there remains the matter of a guide to the Undernet. . .as none of you _quite_ know where it is. . ."

"Okay, fine, you're coming with us," Jeremy intercepted, "Just no tricks, understand?"

"Requirements accepted," Night MegaMan sing-songed, tone jolly.

The Lyoko Warriors all glanced at each other and exchanged nervous looks, adding a confused shrug at the end. None of them were thrilled for their self-proclaimed tour guide, and, in fact, his offer made them feel unhinged; his thoughts had deviated to the Skidbladnir so quickly—had XANA just sent him here, under the false show of truce, for a trap? True, he had repelled MegaMan by the Skid, but that didn't mean he was trustworthy.

Night MegaMan could very well have had his own interests in mind—and presently, for whatever it was worth, he was still driven by those ulterior motives even now.

"Wait," Lan said suddenly, seizing his chance with the awkward silence that Night MegaMan had caused. "Jeremy, I'm going, too."

"What?!" Everyone gaped at the young Hikari, mouths hanging open and stances stock still.

"Lan, what are you thinking?"

"Are you crazy?"

"You've never gone to Lyoko!"

"This isn't funny."

"Randomness for the win!"

That last statement was Odd's—his voice rose above the rest, and he smiled without shame as his outcry had created yet another awkward silence.

"Guys, Lan deserves a chance," Odd said, voice not as mirthful as it was before.

"What's that supposed to mean?" demanded Ulrich.

"Um. . .well. . ." Odd took a deep breath, calming himself down and speaking up once more. "Lan's basically useless if he stays here, and, well. . .this is his brother we're talking about. I think he deserves a fair shot at saving him."

Lan felt a surge of gratitude towards Odd. He hadn't expected anyone to stick up for him, and especially not a joker like Odd Della-Robia. It finally occurred to Lan that perhaps under that façade of laughter and jokes, Odd was a sensitive person—of course, now was not the time to get all mushy. Lan couldn't expect Odd to do all the work for him.

"C'mon, Jeremy." Lan said. "Odd's right. I can't do anything here, and I'm not gonna sit around while MegaMan's stuck with XANA. He's my brother, and he never abandoned me when I needed him!"

Okay, maybe he could get a _little_ mushy.

"And how would you use the Skid, then?" Jeremy challenged. "We only have one extra Nav Skid and that's reserved for Night MegaMan."

"Yumi isn't here!" Odd retaliated. "Lan can use her Nav Skid!"

_"Odd!"_ Ulrich said threateningly.

"No," Night MegaMan protested. "Lan, you can't come to Lyoko."

"Huh?" Lan was confused now. He thought Night MegaMan, out of people, would understand and agree with him. "Oh, c'mon, not you too."

"Lan!" Night MegaMan shouted, suddenly sounding anxious, as if Lan's entry to Lyoko would cause a great and deadly peril, "Just stay in the Real World. If you gain a virtual form, XANA will—"

"What? What will XANA do?" Lan cut in. "If you don't want me getting a Lyoko form, it's too late. I've been virtualized there once already."

The Hikari neglected to mention that he'd been Cross-Fused with MegaMan at the time, but that was information unrelated to the subject—he was not affected by the returns to the past, which was a sign that the super-computer recognized him as an eligible Lyoko Warrior.

Night MegaMan's eyes widened, scarred with sudden anguish, and his stance tightened, as if that piece of information frightened him much more than a trip to the Undernet.

"Then there's nothing more I can say," the clone navi said quietly. "Except: Come to Lyoko at your own risk."

"Then it's decided!" Odd half-shouted. "Lan can come to Lyoko!"

"But—!" Jeremy wanted to argue against that, but then he realized that this entire debate was delaying the entire mission.

Every second was crucial, and the determination reflected in Lan's eyes clearly told Jeremy he was willing to argue from here until next Tuesday for entry into Lyoko. And they didn't _have_ until next Tuesday.

"Fine," Jeremy conceded. "Lan, go the scanner room. I'll begin the Transfer."

**A/N: Before you all complain that connections work perfectly in the Undernet, I just want to point out I'm using the NT Warrior Manga's version (yes, I am a notorious manga/comic book reader) of it, where the characters clearly state that normal strategies and contacts aren't worth a thing there.**

** *catches breath* And now for the trivia question: XANA is not the first to use the Undernet as a safe haven/hiding place. Who else has used a similar tactic for the Undernet? (Note that this question has multiple answers, and character incarnations ranging from the anime, manga, or games are all eligible as answers.)**


End file.
